At least one of the nearly 150 covid-19 vaccines being tested around the world should be ready by 2021, Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO), said.
“We can be optimistic that there will be one or more safe and efficacious vaccines by next year,” Swaminathan said in an interview.
She said the WHO has already started discussions with member-countries on a viable framework for “fair distribution of the vaccine”. A vaccine candidate developed in the UK by the University of Oxford is currently at the most advanced stage, with phase-3 trials recently commencing in hospitals in Brazil and South Africa.
Vaccines usually undergo three rounds of testing. The first two trials are typically smaller, testing only for the possibility of adverse reactions, not on efficacy. Phase-3 trials are a lot more difficult, requiring thousands of volunteers to gauge whether the vaccine actually works in the real world.
India’s own vaccine development efforts have come under a cloud of controversy after the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) made a case to get a vaccine candidate ready by 15 August, effectively giving six weeks for clinical trials to test for safety and efficacy.
On the feasibility of such a deadline, Swaminathan said: “Trials take time and must be conducted according to well-established regulatory processes.”
The WHO will be closely monitoring the phase-3 results of all vaccine trials, she said, because it is possible that some vaccines may be more suitable for one age group, or one type of population group than others.
“The WHO, through its expert committees, has put forward criteria for selection of vaccines for further development,” she said.
Until an effective vaccine is identified, treatment options for those who are in hospitals will remain critical, and it is fairly clear that several re-purposed drugs which were initially widely used like hydroxychloroquine and HIV drug Lopinavir aren’t effective on hospitalized covid-19 patients, Swaminathan said.