Coronavirus vaccine: Moderna, Inovio, Pfizer -- who will win the race?

More than 100 research teams of various pharma companies and research institutions across the world are vying to produce a vaccine in shortest possible time. Some are ahead in the race and have started human trials, while others are exploring unconventional approaches to develop vaccine.

Pennsylvania, United States, based Inovio and New York-based pharma giant Pfizer and Oxford University's Jenner Institute are already at the human trials stage. All hope their vaccines to be ready to use by September.

Pfizer

Pfizer has collaborated with German firm BioNTech SE to develop the coronavirus vaccine. These companies have already delivered their coronavirus vaccine does for initial human testing in the United States. Trials have already been conducted in Germany. If successful, Pfizer said it hopes to receive emergency use authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration as early as October, Reuters reported. It could distribute up to 20 million doses by the end of 2020. The company has claimed.

Inovio

Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc's experimental vaccine has also shown promising results as it produced protective antibodies and improved immune system in mice and guinea pigs. "We saw antibody responses that do many of the things we would want to see in an eventual vaccine," said Dr David Weiner, Director of the vaccine and immunotherapy center at the Wistar Institute, which has collaborated with Inovio, told Reuters.

Moderna

US-based biotechnology company Moderna on Monday said the preliminary findings of its test for coronavirus vaccine development have shown "favourable" results. The experimental vaccine appears to be safe and able to trigger an immune response against the infection, said the company.

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Moderna has said the potential vaccine tried on eight people so far must now be repeated on a larger number to find out its efficacy in the real world.

Also read: Coronavirus update: Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine shows positive results in early tests

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on Wednesday published research showing that a prototype vaccine effectively protected monkeys from infection with the virus. A pair of new studies led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) also suggests vaccine can prevent infection with COVID-19, and individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 are protected against re-exposure to the virus, their animal model research, published in the journal Science, has shown.

"The global COVID-19 pandemic has made the development of a vaccine a top biomedical priority, but very little is currently known about protective immunity to the SARS-CoV-2 virus," said senior author Dan H. Barouch, MD, PhD, Director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at BIDMC.

"In these two studies, we demonstrate in rhesus macaques that prototype vaccines protected against SARS-CoV-2 infection and that SARS-CoV-2 infection protected against re-exposure," said Barouch.

Also read: Coronavirus vaccine: Multiple trials show positive results but concerns about timeframe remain

These crucial findings have paved way for them to partner with Janssen, a Johnson & Johnson division for early development of the potential human vaccine.

Moderna is using a new and different approach, under which cells make all proteins and send them to various parts of the body. Others like China's CanSino and the University of Oxford are using harmless viruses to produce coronavirus genes into human cells, which further produces proteins that could allow our body to get immunity from coronavirus.

As per some predictions, around 20 more vaccine candidates are in the process of entering clinical trials.

Meanwhile, the total coronavirus cases across the world have touched 50,90,157 mark, including 329,739 deaths. Around 20,24,324 people have also recovered from the deadly virus. The pandemic has shattered economies, leaving millions of people jobless and many without food.

Here's a BusinessToday.In Tracker on the number COVID-19 cases in India as of May 21

Edited by Manoj Sharma