A COVID-19 vaccine is unlikely before the middle of next year as potential candidates have to go through a lot more tests to prove efficacy and safety, the World Health Organization has said.
Russia last month said that it has given approval to a COVID vaccine. However, since it had undergone tests for only about two months, many have questioned its safety and effectiveness.
No vaccine candidate from any other part of the world, including the US and the UK, has demonstrated the WHO’s minimum requirement of 50% effectiveness, Margaret Harris, a spokesperson for the WHO, said, amid reports pharmaceutical major Pfizer has said that a vaccine could be ready by late October.
“We are really not expecting to see widespread vaccination until the middle of next year,” Harris told a UN briefing in Geneva, reported Reuters. “This phase 3 must take longer because we need to see how truly protective the vaccine is and we also need to see how safe it is.”
Phases 3 refers to the most critical stage in the development of a medicine that involves clinical trials over a large population.
“A lot of people have been vaccinated and what we don’t know is whether the vaccine works..it has the level of worthwhile efficacy and safety…” she added.
In April, the WHO launched an initiative called COVAX to develop a vaccine and ensure its equitable and fair distribution. The programme aims to distribute 2 billion doses of vaccines that are approved. “Essentially, the door is open. We are open. What the COVAX is about is making sure everybody on the planet will get access to the vaccines,” Harris said.
In India, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said a vaccine could be ready by year-end. At least two vaccines are in the advanced stages of clinical trials in India. A candidate developed jointly by Oxford University and AstraZeneca called Covishield is in a combined phase 2 and 3 trials. If successful, the vaccine will be manufactured by the Serum Institute of India in Pune.
Another product COVAXIN, being developed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech is in phase 2 trials. COVAXIN is being fully developed in India. Zydus Cadila is working on ZyCov-D, which again is in the phase 2 trials.