World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine- AstraZeneca as the front-runner.

COVID-19 vaccine: As many 13 experimental Coroanvirus vaccines are currently under clinical trials to fight the novel Coronavirus pandemic which has impacted millions of people across the world. Between these, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine- AstraZeneca as the front-runner. A report by the Indian Express citing WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said that AstraZeneca has more scope given their plans and vaccine trials.

According to the report, AstraZeneca by Oxford has begun the third phase of trial and has also signed its tenth deal to supply and manufacture. In an agreement of $127 million signed by Brazil, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will be produced locally. The report citing Elcio Franco, Brazil’s No.2 public health official said that Brazil will first produce 30 million doses of the vaccine, where half will be made in December and half in January 2021.

The vaccine is likely to be produced by local vaccine maker Fiocruz and will initially cater to high-risk groups of elderly and people having comorbidities along with health and security personals. The vaccine is expected to provide protection against Coronavirus for one year.

US firm Moderna Inc is also a strong candidate who is working on manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines. The report said that this vaccine candidate mRNA-1273 after the initiation of the second phase of clinical trials has signed a deal with Catalent Inc. Under this deal, 100 million doses will be manufactured in Q3 this year. Catalent as a partner will look after packaging, labelling, storage as well as distribution of this vaccine. Interestingly, the company has also joined hands with Johnson and Johnson as well as AstraZeneca. Meanwhile, the last stage of Moderna’s vaccine will begin next month that too on 30,000 people.

Another player Sanofi, a French pharmaceutical giant, is also developing a vaccine candidate in collaboration with GSK. The report highlighted that the clinical trials for this drug have recently escalated. The company is expected to hold human trials in the last quarter of this year.