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ZURICH: At the close of 2020, the regulatory approval of COVID-19 vaccines has raised hope that the world can defeat the pandemic next year. But production and delivery challenges suggest that beating the disease will be a marathon whose goal is still a long way off.
Europe on Monday (December 21) followed Britain and the United States in giving the green light to a COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and its partner BioNTech that, like a similar injection from Moderna that has US emergency approval. ., Demonstrated 95 percent efficacy in large trials.
The rapid approval of vaccines, just one year after the new coronavirus was detected in Wuhan, China, is testament to the enormous global effort made to tackle a pandemic that has killed more than 1.7 million people, the economies battered and life disrupted.
Scientists identified promising candidates after just a few weeks, not the years it normally takes, and millions of doses are already rolling out of the factories.
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FILE PHOTO: First shipment of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine arrives in Singapore on Dec. 21, 2020. Betty Chua / Ministry of Communications and Information via REUTERS / File photo
However, the progress comes as many countries endure a bleak winter, with rising infections, a new variant of the virus rapidly spreading in Britain and countries around the world that impose new restrictions on travel and everyday life. .
A third vaccine from AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford has also been shown to prevent COVID-19, although questions about how effective it is has left them more work to do to win over some regulators.
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Still, the progress has been impressive.
“It is unprecedented that there are three potential vaccines developed in a short period of time that are all promising,” said Marcel Tanner, president of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Swiss COVID-19 Science Task Force.
Vaccines have started in Britain and the United States, and shipments are also going to Canada, Israel and Mexico. EU countries have said vaccines will start days after Christmas, while Switzerland and Qatar authorized the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine over the weekend.
The boxes containing the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine are ready to be shipped to McKesson’s distribution center in Olive Branch, Mississippi, USA on December 20, 2020. Paul Sancya / Pool via REUTERS
Still, BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin predicted on Tuesday that the “new normal” would see society grappling with sporadic outbreaks of COVID-19 over the next decade, with multiple vaccines that would help prevent company and hospital closures. overloaded.
“This winter we will not have an impact on the infection numbers, but we must have an impact so that next winter is the new normal,” Sahin said.
More than 100 other vaccine candidates are in the pipeline, with test data on several expected soon.
Vaccine experts say multiple injections will be needed to provide enough doses to inoculate the world, from rich to poor.
The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations expects up to 10 vaccines to have been approved by mid-2021, including those from US companies Johnson & Johnson and Novavax and Germany’s CureVac.
LIMITED SUPPLIES
However, big challenges remain, including increasing production.
Pfizer expects to produce just 50 million injections by 2020, half of its original goal, covering 25 million people with its two-dose regimen. Moderna has promised 20 million vaccines in the United States this year, covering 10 million people.
Manufacturing will accelerate in 2021, with a combined production that could exceed 1.8 billion doses.
The trajectories of other companies are similar, but supplies will not arrive fast enough for a world hungry for vaccines.
“There just won’t be enough vaccines for a long time … maybe well into 2022,” said Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
There have also been early problems related to the storage and delivery of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine that must be kept at Antarctic temperatures, as well as confusion about how many doses are actually in a vial.
Allergic reactions have also emerged in some UK and US healthcare workers.
And while trials involving tens of thousands have shown that the new mRNA technology used by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna appears safe, there are still many doubts among people about receiving vaccinations when calling their number.
– In this file photo taken Dec. 20, 2020, boxes containing the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine are prepared to be shipped to McKesson’s distribution center in Olive Branch, Mississippi, on Dec. 20, 2020 (File Photo : AP / Paul Sancya).
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that around 60 percent of people need to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity, which means that there are enough people protected for the disease to stop spreading.
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Developing countries hoping to access vaccines through a WHO-backed global scheme may have to wait, as richer countries have set aside initial stocks.
Until now, the West has focused primarily on inoculating front-line medical workers and residents of nursing homes, where even in limited volumes, vaccines could make a difference for populations hardest hit by the virus.
Eighty percent of the more than 300,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the US have been people over the age of 65, the CDC has said.
“This could solve the COVID-19 health crisis even if, due to vaccine skepticism, herd immunity is not achieved,” said Christian Muenz, professor of viral immunobiology at the University of Zurich.
HITS, FOUL
So far, Russia has inoculated more than 200,000 people with its homegrown Sputnik-V injection, which developers say is 91.4 percent effective. The country has also signed production agreements, including with India.
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In China, where a candidate from Sinovac Biotech and two from the China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) are in the final stages of testing, healthcare workers and border officials have been shot, amid spending to boost production. .
Sinopharm’s vaccine is registered in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt also receives deliveries, while Sinovac has agreements to supply Brazil, Turkey, and Indonesia.
Other Chinese vaccines, including those from CanSino Biologics, are also in late-stage trials.
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However, not all vaccine projects hit the mark.
Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline delayed their candidate after he failed to protect the elderly.
An Australian project also failed.
And questions still surround the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was 62 percent effective among patients who received two full doses.
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Eric Topol, founder of the California-based Scripps Research Translational Institute, said the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines would be difficult actions to follow.
“We can’t take 62 percent when you can get 95 percent,” Topol said. “It would have been good enough if we didn’t have anything else.”
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