COVID-19: the world has launched a race for the creation of a vaccine against coronavirus
Who and when will create the coronavirus vaccine |
| Coronavirus vaccine |
In the photo: the development of a vaccine against the coronavirus COVID-19 by Protein Sciences Corporation in the US state of Connecticut
Doctors in different countries are working on a vaccine from Covid-19 and new testing procedures. Over the past week, several companies have announced plans to begin clinical trials of the first phase of their existing prototypes. However, most world experts and the World Health Organization (WHO) agree that it will take up to a year and a half to develop a vaccine.
A vaccine is a drug that provides activation of acquired immunity. With the help of vaccination, mankind has managed to completely (like smallpox) or almost completely (like polio) defeat many dangerous diseases. At the same time, vaccination is not a panacea. So, due to frequent mutations of the virus, flu shots, although certainly useful, do not guarantee that infection will not occur. It’s hard to say how successful coronavirus vaccines can be.
In order for the vaccine to be approved, it must successfully pass several stages of research: preclinical (in vitro and in animals) - the general safety and the presence of the immune response are checked, and the three phases of clinical trials on volunteers are safety testing, dose determination, and effectiveness testing.
China and the United States are at the forefront - they are already testing the vaccine in humans.
The main players in Europe are two German biopharmaceutical companies, BioNTech and CureVac. They specialize in studies of matrix RNA therapy (mRNA therapy), also known as “antisense”. This treatment method is based on turning off protein synthesis involved in the development of the disease. CureVac is about to start clinical trials of its coronavirus vaccine in summer; the company is developing it in conjunction with the federal Erlich Institute for the Production of Vaccines and Biomedical Medicines.
On March 20, the Russian Rospotrebnadzor announced the start of testing a vaccine against Covid-19.
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| Coronavirus lab image |
“The researchers were able to create vaccines based on the widely used recombinant viral vectors of influenza, measles and vesicular stomatitis, and on the basis of promising synthetic vaccine technologies: mRNA vaccines, peptide vaccines, and subunit vaccines,” the agency said.
Scientists conduct research on laboratory animals. The “most promising and safest prototypes” will be determined, as well as the best composition, dose, and route of administration of the vaccine.
In Britain, the Covid-19 vaccine prototype is called ChAdOx1 and is being developed by scientists at the University of Oxford. Preclinical animal tests are conducted at the Porton Down laboratory near Salisbury until the end of March (this is the city where the former spy Skripal was poisoned). A clinical trial of the vaccine will begin in April.
Italy has also entered the Covid-19 vaccine development race. According to ANSA, the vaccine will be tested on animals first. The vaccine is called Sars-Cov2 and was developed by Takis based on a fragment of the genetic material of the virus. In the fall, the vaccine can be tested in humans.
The pace of the pandemic spread around the world is staggering: from the first established case of coronavirus in 67 days, the number of cases was 100 thousand people. From 100 thousand to 200 thousand 11 days have passed. At present, 350 thousand people have become ill with coronavirus infection in the world.
Therefore, there is great hope for a vaccine that will stop the spread of the disease. In the meantime, isolation has become the main hope of mankind.
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