With developing a safe, effective and accessible vaccine for Covid-19 being seen as the key to contain the pandemic, research and trials are going on at a fast pace across the world to find a cure for the novel coronavirus. In latest developments, US company Moderna Inc, one of the front runners in the vaccine race, has said it had started dosing patients in a mid-stage study while Russian scientists plan to start clinical trials within two weeks.
Coming to India, where cases touched 1,82,143 on Sunday after reporting 8,380 new infections in 24 hours,Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali group has joined the global efforts of developing a cure for Covid-19, PTI reported.
A Chinese vaccine, being jointly developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products and China National Biotec Group Co, has completed phase II testing and may be ready for the market at the end of this year or early next year, according to a report published by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
The report, quoted by Reuters, said the production line for the vaccine would be fully disinfected and would have a full manufacturing capacity of 100 million-120 million vaccines each year. The vaccine candidate employs a killed version of the novel coronavirus that can still trigger an immune response.
In total, five vaccines developed by Chinese companies are being tested on humans, the most in any country.
Another Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech has pinned hope on its inactivated vaccine, dubbed CoronaVac, and said it was 99 percent sure of its efficacy. As per a Sky News report, Luo Baishan, a researcher at Sinovac, said, “It must be successful…99 percent sure.”
The company has reached stage 2 of its vaccine trial, with more than 1000 volunteers participating. The company is in preliminary talks to hold stage 3 trials – the final part of the process in the UK.