Pfizer, Moderna, Sputnik or Oxford? Experts Discuss Which Coronavirus Vaccine Is Best For India

11/18/2020 Health, India, World


US pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Moderna have published the results of clinical trials of their respective experimental coronavirus vaccines. Both candidate vaccines have been reported to have shown an efficacy rate of more than 90%.

At the same time, the first batch of the Russian Sputnik-V coronavirus vaccine is scheduled to arrive at Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Medical College in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Clinical trials for this Covid-19 candidate vaccine will be conducted under the agreement between Dr. Reddy’s and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF).

According to the coronavirus control panel of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, last updated at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, India has 4,53,401 active cases of coronavirus. Up to 82,90,370 patients have been discharged after recovering from the infection, while Covid-19 has claimed 1,30,519 lives across the country to date.

Top experts from around the world joined India Today consulting editor Rajdeep Sardesai to discuss how soon India can get a Covid-19 vaccine.

‘Joint Indian-Russian vaccine’

RDIF Executive Director Kirill Dmitriev said Russia’s Sputnik-V coronavirus vaccine is one of only three vaccines in the world supported by published preliminary clinical trial results. “The vaccine shows a very high efficacy of 92 percent. The number is calculated very simply: 75 percent of the clinical trial participants received the vaccine, but only four of the 20 infected received Sputnik-V while the 16 remaining received placebo. ” added.

RDIF executive director Kirill Dmitriev called Sputnik-V a “joint India-Russia vaccine” and said Russia believes its adenovirus vector-based vaccine is safer than the others. He also mentioned a survey by RDIF that revealed that 60 percent of people across India are aware of Russia’s Sputnik-V coronavirus vaccine.

In response to a question about whether Russia and the United States have grappled with vaccine development, Kirill Dmitriev said that we live in an interdependent world and we need to work together. The RDIF executive director also revealed that the Russian Covid-19 vaccine is already being manufactured in India by contractors in small quantities.

Contractors will produce large doses by December and about a million doses by January, Kirill Dmitriev said.

‘Small modern sample size but sufficient to draw statistical conclusions’

One of the world’s leading microbiologists, Professor Stanley Perlman of the University of Iowa, said that the results of the Moderna and Pfizer clinical trials are much better than expected. “These viruses are very protective against disease, there are details that we still need to know, questions about how long the immune response will be effective,” added Professor Perlman.

He went on to confirm that the sample size of Moderna’s study is small but sufficient to draw a statistical conclusion. Professor Stanley Perlman added that vaccine manufacturing facilities will have to be accelerated.

In response to a question about the challenges countries like India would face once a vaccine is authorized for distribution, Professor Perlman told India Today: “With these two vaccines [Moderna and Pfizer]Because they are made of RNA, the internal structure of the virus, they need to be kept cold, which is a problem. “

We may have enough vaccines to immunize many people sometime between March and May next year, he added. Professor Stanley Perlman also said that there is no reason to believe that other vaccines will not induce a similar immune response. “You don’t have to rely solely on RNA vaccines, we will have more information on the vaccines that AstraZeneca is developing [University of Oxford/SII- Covishield], Johnson & Johnson and Novovax soon, “he added.

‘The cost of modern vaccines, Pfizer worries India’

India’s leading vaccine scientist and microbiologist Professor Dr. Gagandeep Kang also echoed Professor Stanley Perlman’s opinion that the results of Moderna and Pfizer’s clinical trials are “completely unexpected.”

“We were thinking of a vaccine that is 60 to 70 percent effective and even that would have been a very useful tool, but Moderna’s vaccine is preventing virtually all serious diseases,” Dr. Kang said.

In response to a question about which vaccine is best suited for India, Dr. Gagandeep Kang says that Moderna’s is more manageable as it can be stored at 2-8 degrees for a month. He also adds that India’s polio vaccination program was carried out under similar conditions.

“Concern for both vaccines [Moderna and Pfizer] is the cost. These are more expensive than anything we have had in the Indian vaccination program, “said Dr. Kang. She adds that coronavirus vaccines based on spike proteins of the virus are likely to work.

Citing the findings published by Russia’s Gamaleya Center, Dr. Gagandeep Kang says that the spike protein is working not only on the RNA platform but also on the adenovirus platform. “If we have many platforms that give us more than one vaccine, that’s good,” he adds.

Responding to a question about American vaccines, Dr. Kang says that neither Moderna nor Pfizer will submit emergency use authorization applications to the FDA anytime soon. “They have to generate safety data, this is clinical efficacy data that shows what the vaccine is and what it is supposed to do, its safety and its ability to prevent serious diseases,” he says.

“But they [Moderna and Pfizer] they must have at least two months of safety data for 50 percent of the people they have recruited in their clinical trials, “Dr. Gagandeep Kang told India Today. She added that in India, the authority also requires concerned bridging data before a vaccine can be licensed for distribution.

Dr. Kang adds that AstraZeneca is close and will likely present its clinical efficacy data in late November. “IBS has already completed its immunogenicity tests,” he says.

AstraZeneca and the Oxford University coronavirus vaccine could be the first to be available in India by the first quarter of 2021, said Dr. Gagandeep Kang. He added that India needs additional cold storage facilities for the distribution of a coronavirus vaccine.

‘Vaccine nationalism is a big concern’

“There is a difference between the ability to manufacture and the ability to deliver. India produces more vaccines than any other country, but we do not have a delivery program for adults other than pregnant women,” Dr Kang told India Today.

He added that repeated waves of vaccination based on priority groups will be needed in countries like India. Dr. Kang also said that it could take at least 24 months or more for all Indians to receive both doses of a two-dose coronavirus vaccine.

Reiterating the nature of the coronavirus, Dr. Kang said that the virus travels and, as long as we have affected patients anywhere in the world, it would pose a threat.

“Vaccine nationalism is a huge concern,” he said, adding that medical workers and the elderly around the world should receive the vaccine as a priority. The World Health Organization (WHO) or independent licensing bodies like the FDA are not compromising the safety of these vaccines, said Dr. Gagandeep Kang.

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