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About seven new vaccines could complete clinical trials and receive regulatory evaluation by the end of this year, Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist for the Geneva-based organization, said in an interview on Saturday.
The new vaccines will complement the top ten vaccines released in the year since Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic. The world needs more vaccines, all the more so as the constant circulation of the virus creates dangerous new strains and drug manufacturers fail to fulfill orders. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, only 122 countries have started immunizing the population.
“We are delighted with the vaccines we have,” said Swaminathan, an Indian pediatrician who became famous for her research on tuberculosis and HIV.
But “there is still room for improvement,” he said. “I think in 2022. we will oversee the development of improved vaccines,” he said.
Alternative technologies and vaccination systems currently used in experimental vaccines also include more single-dose vaccines and vaccines that are administered orally, as a nasal spray, or through the skin with a specific patch.
This type of immunization may be more appropriate for specific population groups, such as pregnant women, Swaminathan said.
More than 80 candidate vaccines are already being tested, although some are still in the early stages and may prove unsuccessful.
Companies that have released Covid-19 vaccines, which are already in use, have also started testing updated versions to curb the coronavirus strains that have appeared in recent months.
Soumya Swaminathan
Booster shots
“We need to continue supporting the research and development of new vaccines, especially since it is not yet clear whether it will be necessary to intensify the immunization of the population,” Swaminathan said. “So we have to be prepared for such a scenario.”
The WHO Strategic Advisory Group on Immunization is currently reviewing whether people who have been infected with Covid-19 need two doses of the vaccine. Some studies suggest that natural infection helps develop an immune response to SARS-CoV-2 very similar to the first dose of vaccine, so a second injection may not be necessary.
If we distribute just one dose of Covid-19 to people with the disease, we will have more supplies, Swaminathan said, although “in many countries” this can create “practical and logistical challenges” if a blood test is needed before deciding whether to you need a second vaccine. Tests to determine the amount of antibodies.
Delivering safe and effective vaccines also raises questions about how to conduct clinical trials of experimental vaccines efficiently and ethically, he noted. The placebo will be replaced by a “gold standard” (full-blown) vaccine when it is no longer ethical to use, Swaminathan said.
Global tests
One of the methods the WHO is testing is comparing three or four candidate vaccines with placebo at the same time. A similar trial design was used to study the effectiveness of Covid-19 drug therapies, so this would mean that study participants with an 80% chance of being vaccinated with the experimental vaccine and with only a 20% chance of placebo.
“We are currently in talks with several companies developing vaccines to see if we can launch something like a global testing platform,” Swaminathan said, adding that optimistic estimates could start such a study in the first 2021. side.
According to her, global trials involving many different people and countries would even offer various benefits.
Testing the vaccines on a sample of people of different nationalities, age groups and health conditions would make the results more relevant for generalizability, as the epidemic continues to be active in others while the epidemic begins to weaken in others, Swaminathan said.
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