Written By: Longjam Dineshwori | Updated : November 10, 2020 9:29 AM IST
AstraZeneca is seeking emergency use authorisation of its vaccine from the World Health Organization (WHO).
A Covid-19 vaccine co-developed by pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford is seen as one of the most promising of all the experimental candidates currently being tested on humans. Dubbed 'Covishield', the vaccine is currently in the phase-III or the last stage of clinical trial and the results are expected to be published in December. Meanwhile, Australia has already begun local production of the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine, with roughly 30 million doses planned to be manufactured.
As reported by IANS, Australian biotech firm CSL has signed a deal with AstraZeneca to begin pre-emptive production of the vaccine, for release during the first half of 2021 should remaining tests prove successful.
"We are undertaking these manufacturing activities at-risk and in parallel with the clinical trials and approvals processes in recognition of the significant urgency of the Covid-19 pandemic," the news agency quoted CSL's Chief Scientific Officer Andrew Nash as saying.
While the production has started, the vaccine will not be released for use anytime soon. Australia's government regulatory authority, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), will review the development process before approving the shots for general use.
When it's available, a person may need a two-dose regime. This means the planned 30 million doses would be used to vaccinate 15 million people.
The production of the vaccine is being done at CSL's bioreactor facility in the State of Victoria, the company said in a statement.
Further, the IANS report said that CSL had already manufactured several doses of another Covid-19 vaccine candidate developed by Australia's University of Queensland (UQ). It is waiting for the vaccine trail to progress to Phase 2b/3 clinical trials, which will begin after the release and review of Phase 1 clinical trial data.
Bharat Biotech, a private company that is developing COVAXIN with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), might launch its vaccine as early as February - months earlier than expected and before the Oxford jab. The last-stage trials of the vaccine started this month.
The Hyderabad-based company had earlier hoped to launch it only in the second quarter of next year. Senior ICMR scientist Rajni Kant, who is also a member of its COVID-19 task force, recently told Reuters that the last-stage trial results have so far shown good efficacy and it is expected to be available "by the beginning of next year, February or March."
COVAXIN has been found to be safe without any major adverse events in the first two stages of clinical studies, the company claimed.
On the hand, Britain's AstraZeneca had accepted that its deliveries were running 'a little bit late'. The company has already missed its target of delivering 30 million doses of its vaccine against COVID-19 to the UK by September. This vaccine is at the moment under phase 2-3 clinical trial in India. The Serum Institute of India (SII) has joined hands with AstraZeneca for the production of more than 3 billion doses of vaccine.
In an recent interview with Mint, SII CEO Poonawalla maintained that the vaccine may be available in India by January 2021 if all the approvals are in place.
Nearly 45 coronavirus vaccine candidates are said to be in human trials across the world. U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc hopes to file for U.S. authorisation in late November, which means there may be a vaccine in the United States by the end of the year. Moderna is also expecting to have early data on its vaccine candidate before the end of the year.
