Covid vaccine race heats up as China puts $1Bn behind Sinovac; Oxford's trial in Phase 3

Sinovac: China

Beijing-based pharmaceutical and biotech firm Sinovac signed a deal with Brazillian counterpart Instituto Butantan last week, to develop a vaccine and conduct further tests in the South American nation. As the global race intensifies to come up with a viable COVID-19 vaccine, China is fighting tooth-and-nail to be the first one to develop a working vaccine in the fight against the novel Coronavirus.

On Wednesday, July 22, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, announced that China will loan $1 billion to South America and the Caribbean islands for COVID-19 vaccine access, despite a working product nowhere close to being ready. 

In a virtual gathering attended by leaders from Central and Latin America, the Mexican Foreign Ministry noted in its statement that Sinovac's vaccine developed in China will have "universal access" and that China is "dedicated to supporting access to the vaccine for Latin America".

Read | Largest COVID-19 vaccine study under way in US

Oxford Clinical trials: AstraZeneca (UK)

As Oxford vaccine made by UK's AstraZeneca enters the final phase of COVID-19 trials in Brazil, over 5,000 volunteers signed up to be a part of it. The ChAdOx1 vaccine is currently being developed by Oxford University in collaboration with biopharma company AstraZeneca. 

Notably, at the end of May, World Health Organisation's lead scientist Soumya Swaminathan, called ChAdOx1 the "most advanced COVID-19 vaccine candidate," and the drug has since been the subject of a lot of media attention. 

Phases one and two of the clinical trial took place in April in England. Over 1,000 test subjects who volunteered were administered the drug and their immune responses were gauged for vital signs of improvement.

The third and final development phase was shifted to Brazil in coordination with Federal University of Sao Paulo's Reference Center for Special Immunobiologicals

Read | Human clinical trial of COVID-19 vaccine ‘Covaxin’ begins in Odisha

Moderna, Pfizer's mRNA COVID vaccine run (US)

The US has roped in two pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Moderna to work on arranging a clinical trial for their COVID-19 vaccine mRNA. The trial is presumed to be the largest compared to its competitors, as it has recruited 30,000 volunteers from 89 different sites across Brazil to test the vaccine's effectiveness. This will be the first time a drug with a test capacity as large as this will be approved for trails by the National Institutes of Health.

News agency AP reported five days ago that Pfizer cut a deal with the US government for $1.95 billion to develop 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine in the country. The report, based on a press release announced that company planned to conduct phase 3 trials by the end of July and also hoped that the FDA approval and licensing will be awarded by October if the trials are successful.

Read | Emergent inks $174 million deal with AstraZeneca to produce COVID-19 vaccine candidate

Operation Warp Speed

Brazil is an important ground for COVID-19 vaccines as the three largest players in the world speed up their process to get approval from regulatory bodies at home. Latin America has suffered enormously since it became the epicentre of the global pandemic in late May. With over 2.2 million people affected in Brazil alone, it currently stands as the second worst-hit country after the US. As such, once the vaccine is ready and approved, both Sinovac and Instituto Butantan will start the trial phase with 9,000 people.

While scientists across the world are toiling to find a cure in record time, Trump administration and the Communist Party of China is sinking in more money in the race to be the first country to develop a vaccine that will not only be made universally available but also be able to reap the financial benefits at a critical time such as this.

Read | World’s biggest coronavirus vaccine trial gets underway in US