Covid vaccine candidate

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that it has found at least seven or eight of the best candidates for the COVID-19 vaccine. WHO Director General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that his team was working to accelerate vaccine development to stop the spread of the pandemic.

The journey to find a vaccine for COVID-19 is still not in sight. Even so, dozens of agencies around the world are now competing to test hundreds of vaccine candidates with the most potential to prevent COVID-19. The following are the latest developments that have been reported.

WHO COVID-19 vaccine candidate

Tedros previously said via video at the UN Economic and Social Council that the development of a COVID-19 vaccine may take 12 to 18 months. Constraints in this process include the availability of funds and the complexity of the trials.

However, WHO has actually been working with thousands of researchers around the world to accelerate the search for a vaccine since last January. Vaccines are developed through animal testing to clinical trial design and other related processes.

Tedros added, WHO has so far collected and developed more than one hundred COVID-19 vaccine candidates. They are now focusing on the seven or eight vaccine candidates that have the potential to produce the best results.

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He did not mention in more detail which candidates were included in the top group. However, WHO reported it in a draft landscape document published on 11 May. Here's the list:

Adenovirus Type 5 Vector belongs to CanSino Biological company and Beijing Institute of Biotechnology from China.
LNP-encapsulated mRNA belonging to the company Moderna and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the United States.
The vaccine candidate belongs to the Sinopharm company and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products from China.
The vaccine candidate belongs to the Sinopharm company and the Beijing Institute of Biological Products from China.
The vaccine candidate belongs to the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech.
ChAdOx1 belongs to the University of Oxford from the UK.
The 3 LNP-mRNAs belong to the German institute Biopharmaceutical New Technologies, the Chinese company Fosun Pharma, and the US-based Pfizer.
Electroporation DNA plasmid vaccine candidate belonging to the US institute Inovio Pharmaceuticals.

Apart from these eight candidates, WHO also has 102 other COVID-19 vaccine candidates that are still in the preclinical stage. Until there is further development, every country needs to make efforts to improve access to health services and intensify efforts to prevent COVID-19.

Travel the world in search of a COVID-19 vaccine

Facing the COVID-19 pandemic has left the whole world wondering when a vaccine will be available. The answer is complex and very conditionally dependent, because vaccine development is a long series of processes.

According to the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are six stages in vaccine development. Hundreds of vaccine candidates on the WHO list must pass all these stages before they can become a COVID-19 vaccine.

The stages are as follows:

1. Investigation

This is the stage for researching vaccine or artificial ingredients that have the potential to prevent or treat disease. Vaccine material is usually in the form of a virus that has been weakened so that it cannot cause disease in the body.

Currently there are more than 20 COVID-19 vaccine candidates that are still being investigated. There are vaccines developed from the SARS vaccine, genetic material for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as well as a combination of several antigens.

2. Preclinical

At this stage, researchers use tissue culture technology and animal trials to determine whether a vaccine candidate can establish immunity. Many vaccine candidates fail at this stage because they cannot establish immunity or are harmful to the research subject.

3. Clinical development

This is the stage when a vaccine development company submits a proposal with the results of preclinical trials to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA has 30 days to accept the proposal.

After the proposal is received, the COVID-19 vaccine candidate must pass through three stages of clinical trials in humans consisting of:

Phase I: vaccine candidates are tested in small groups (less than 100 people) to determine whether the vaccine is safe for humans.
Phase II: the vaccine candidate is tested on several hundred people to determine safety, immune-shaping ability, dosage, and immunization schedule.
Phase III: the vaccine candidate was tested on tens of thousands of people to measure its safety, possible side effects, and effectiveness.

4. Rule review and approval

If the COVID-19 vaccine candidate passes all three phases of clinical development, the vaccine developer will apply for a license to the FDA. The FDA will re-examine the rules for the use of the vaccine before approving it.

5. Production

At this stage, large pharmaceutical factories will provide the infrastructure, workers and equipment needed to produce large quantities of vaccines. They will benefit from the drugs and vaccines they produce.

6. Quality control

The vaccines that have been produced cannot be given to the public. Policymakers must follow certain procedures to ensure that the vaccine works as expected.

Sometimes, vaccines that have been produced also pass phase IV clinical trials if deemed necessary. This test aims to monitor the safety, effectiveness, and work of vaccines that have obtained the license.

The vaccine candidate announced by WHO still needs to go through a long series of processes before it can become the real COVID-19 vaccine. There are still layered clinical trials, licensing, and other stages towards production.

Even so, this is a breath of fresh air in the fight against COVID-19. As a community, you can play a role by washing your hands and applying physical distancing in order to stop the spread of the pandemic.