Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca: What is the latest on COVID-19 vaccine from the manufacturers?

This past week was an action packed in terms of announcements from Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca-University of Oxford. All of them have reported positive data on their vaccine safety and efficacy, raising hopes of availability of a potential safe COVID-19 vaccine by end of December or January next year.

Moderna said the first interim analysis of its COVID-19 vaccine demonstrated 94.5 percent efficacy. The company intends to submit an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) application with the USFDA in the coming weeks.

Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech reported that their COVID-19 vaccine candidate, was 95 percent effective without any major safety concerns. Pfizer has filed for EUA in US.

Both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require cold chain with ultra low temperatures, while Pfizer must be stored at about minus 70° Celsius, and Moderna vaccine would need minus 20° Celsius. If Pfizer doesn't do something, its vaccine may largely be out of bounds for Indians, given the fact that India doesn't have the cold storage to deal with -70° C, even Moderna's -20° C would also be challenging.

You can read this explainer comparing two vaccines.

University of Oxford-AstraZeneca have said that their vaccine has shown produced a strong immune response in older adults in Phase-2 clinical. The University of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine candidate had been among the front-runners in global efforts to develop shots to protect against COVID-19.

In India, Bharat Biotech said it has begun Phase-3 trial of its COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin, which it is developing in collaboration with ICMR. The company plans to enrol up to 26,000 participants, in what is considered to be the largest ever efficacy trial to be done in India.

However the latest media reports about a serious adverse event of Covaxin Phase-1 trial has raised some concerns. The Times of India reported that the participant was hospitalised with viral pneumonitis, a couple of days after being administered the vaccine. He was discharged after a week’s stay in the hospital.

Bharat Biotech said the adverse event during Phase I clinical trials in August was promptly to the CDSCO-DCGI within 24 hours of its occurrence and confirmation. The company said they investigated the adverse even and determined it as not vaccine related. But we still don't have information such as whether the participant who had adverse event is part of control group (received placebo) or vaccine group. If the participant is from control group, than it wouldn't of big concern.

Bharat Biotech is developing inactivated vaccine based on the SARS-CoV2 virus strain given by ICMR.

Please read this explainer to know more about serious adverse events in clinical trials.

Another interesting development this week China's state-owned vaccine maker China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) said it had already inoculated a million people with its experimental COVID-19 vaccine.

The vaccine has been administered even as clinical or human trials of the vaccine are yet to be completed. In fact China launched has launched vaccination in July itself. The company claimed that the vaccines has been safe. China as part of vaccine diplomacy efforts has raised the pitch for its COVID-19 vaccines globally.

China's President Xi Jinping at 12th Brics summit made an offer of extending cooperation to India on COVID-19 vaccines.