With the novel coronavirus triggering a worldwide pandemic and taking people’s lives, 2020 has been a challenging year. With the year coming to an end, however, we are witnessing how vaccines are demonstrating their efficacy against Covid-19.
This has contributed to massive demand by nations around the world for vaccines.
Here are the vaccines currently in the line-up to save the lives of several individuals around the world–
Oxford-AstraZeneca
The ChAdOx1 adenovirus vaccine, the first to show promise to be effective against the novel coronavirus, was developed by researchers at Oxford and AstraZeneca. It has resulted in efficacy of 70% and is the world’s most pre-ordered vaccine at about 3.29 billion doses.
In India, the vaccine will be produced by the Serum Institute of India to help deal with demand in India and select nations around the world. It is the most affordable vaccine in the batch, at about US$3-4 per dose, which is between five and ten times cheaper than Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s projected prices for other leading vaccines.
Novavaxax
Novavax is the first vaccine on the list of most pre-ordered vaccines. So far, about 1.38 billion Novavax doses have been pre-ordered. The Novavax vaccine is based in Maryland and uses a custom-made spike protein that mirrors the normal spike protein in the novel coronavirus.
Novavax finally used it for the first time in its Covid-19 vaccine after several years of production of its recombinant nanoparticle technology.
Pfizer-BioNTech
Next on the list is the BNT162 vaccine, developed by the American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech. In the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and many other parts of the world, it was the first vaccine to be approved for use.
It demonstrated a whopping 95 percent effectiveness. More than 1.28 billion doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine have been purchased worldwide today, and demand continues to grow.
Johnson and Johnson
Johnson and Johnson is another vaccine on the list. However, it has yet to show its efficacy against the virus. The recombinant adenovirus-type vaccine is still in the stage of late-human trials that started sometime in December. The Johnson and Johnson Covid-19 vaccine has developed pre-orders of approximately 1.27 billion doses as of now.
Moderna
Moderna, the first to report that it is working on the development of a novel coronavirus vaccine, has managed to be up to 95% effective against SARS CoV-2. Just about 780 million doses of the mRNA vaccine managed to get pre-orders. It is also one of the most costly vaccines, valued at $32 to $37 per dose, on this list.
CureVac
Despite still undergoing trials, the CVnCoV by Curevac has got quite a few preorders. The vaccine is basically a non-chemically modified mRNA, coding the prefusion stabilized full-length spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 with pre-orders of over 410 million doses as of now.
Sanofi/GSK
The Covid-19 vaccine from Sanofi/GSK has managed to secure pre-orders of over 1,23 billion doses, though the vaccine is still in the early stages of testing. The intermediate results of phase I and II trials showed an immune response close to patients recovering from COVID-19 in adults (aged 18 to 49 years).
Sputnik-V
The first vaccine in the world that was approved for use, after it officially showed up to 94 percent efficacy against the novel coronavirus. For the time being, only 340 million doses have been pre-ordered for the vaccine. Russia is currently vaccinating individuals at high risk of transmitting the latest coronavirus — physicians, teachers, etc. By the end of this year, they plan to vaccinate 2 million individuals.
Sinovac
Around 260 million vaccine doses have been pre-ordered, produced by Chinese pharmaceutical giant Sinovac. The vaccine is still under production and has recently been carried out in a clinical trial in Brazil. Up to 50 percent efficacy against the virus has been demonstrated by the vaccine.
Indian vaccine candidates in the different clinical trial stage
Bharat Biotech
India’s main homegrown coronavirus vaccine developer is already manufacturing millions of doses of its still-to-be-authorized candidate but says it is overwhelming to think of having enough shots for half the nearly 1.4 billion people in the nation.
Approximately 10 million doses of its still-in-trial Covaxin shot have already been developed by Bharat Biotech, ahead of an expected roll-out by the middle of next year.
Zydus Cadila
Zydus Cadila is now preparing to begin a phase III clinical trial of approximately 30,000 volunteers upon receipt of the requisite approvals. Cadia’s Phase II study of the ZyCoV-D vaccine was performed in over 1,000 healthy adult volunteers. It was found that the vaccine was safe and immunogenic.