It’s Rare A Vaccine Is Developed In Five Years. Can The World Really Pull It Off In One?
The New York Times talks with experts about how realistic the expedited vaccine development process really is. "Most people don’t realize that successfully inventing and developing any new drug or vaccine is quantifiably among the hardest things that human beings try to do," George Yancopoulos, co-founder, president and chief scientific officer of Regeneron, tells The New York Times. Media outlets also look at where the vaccine front-runners stand.
The New York Times:
Can A Vaccine For Covid-19 Be Developed In Record Time?
In the history of medicine, rarely has a vaccine been developed in less than five years. Among the fastest to be developed was the current mumps vaccine, which was isolated from the throat washings of a child named Jeryl Lynn in 1963. Over the next months, the virus was systematically “weakened” in the lab by her father, a biomedical scientist named Maurice Hilleman. Such a weakened or attenuated virus stimulates an immune response but does not cause the disease; the immune response protects against future infections with the actual virus. Human trials were carried out over the next two years, and the vaccine was licensed by Merck in December 1967. (6/9)
The New York Times:
Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker
Researchers around the world are developing more than 125 vaccines against the coronavirus. Vaccines typically require years of research and testing before reaching the clinic, but scientists are racing to produce a safe and effective vaccine by next year. Work began in January with the deciphering of the SARS-CoV-2 genome. The first vaccine safety trials in humans started in March, but the road ahead remains uncertain. Some trials will fail, and others may end without a clear result. But a few may succeed in stimulating the immune system to produce effective antibodies against the virus. Here is the status of all the vaccines that have reached trials in humans, along with a selection of promising vaccines still being tested in cells or animals. (Corum and Zimmer, 6/10)
The Wall Street Journal:
Coronavirus Vaccine Candidates’ Pivotal U.S. Testing To Start This Summer
The federal government plans to fund and conduct the decisive studies of three experimental coronavirus vaccines starting this summer, according to a lead government vaccine researcher. These phase 3 trials are expected to involve tens of thousands of subjects at dozens of sites around the U.S., John Mascola, director of the vaccine research center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview. Meant to determine a vaccine’s safety and effectiveness, they would mark the final stage of testing. (Loftus, 6/10)
NPR:
Producing Enough Vaccine For The Coronavirus Means Companies Have To Start Now
Once upon a time, developing a new vaccine was a step-by-step process that went from concept, to design, to tests in humans, to regulatory approval, to manufacturing. It was a process that could take a decade or more. But the urgent need for a COVID-19 vaccine has radically changed all that. Now, the hope is the entire process can be completed in a year or less. (Palca, 6/10)
Reuters:
Potential COVID-19 Vaccine From China Shows Promise In Animal Tests
A potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Chinese researchers showed promise in trials in monkeys, triggering antibodies and raising no safety issues, researchers said, and a human trial with more than 1,000 participants is under way. The vaccine candidate, called BBIBP-CorV, induced high-level neutralising antibodies that can block the virus from infecting cells in monkeys, rats, guinea pigs and rabbits, researchers said in a paper published in online by the medical journal Cell on Saturday. (6/10)
Reuters:
Japan's AnGes Speeds Towards 2021 Rollout In Coronavirus 'Vaccine War'
Japanese biotech AnGes Inc expects its coronavirus vaccine to be ready as early as the first half of 2021, if it can overcome supply chain and production hurdles, the company’s founder said. The Osaka-based firm had a headstart in the potential COVID-19 vaccine development by repurposing its hypertension vaccine that had already passed through high safety and regulatory standards and other hurdles. (Swift, 6/10)
ABC News:
Out Of The Lab And Into People’s Arms: A List Of COVID-19 Vaccines That Are Being Studied In Clinical Trials
The world's leading drug companies, universities and governments are racing to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, the disease that has taken more than 400,000 lives globally. Of the 133 candidates being explored, ten have been approved for human trials, according to the World Health Organization... Here are the companies leading the global race for a coronavirus vaccine. (Nunez, 6/9)
