Written By: Longjam Dineshwori | Updated : April 22, 2020 8:51 PM IST
Oxford COVID-19 vaccine is made from a genetically engineered virus that causes the common cold in chimpanzees.
Scientists around the world are in race against time to find a cure for the deadly COVID-19, which has infected 2,471,136 people and claimed 169,006 lives so far, according to the latest WHO data. Several vaccine candidates are under development in many countries. According to WHO, there are now 70 candidate vaccines in development, and a few are under human trials.
The UK is at the forefront in the global search for a vaccine. The country on Tuesday announced a 20 million pounds funding for a University of Oxford project working on developing a vaccine against the novel coronavirus. The vaccine, called ChAdOX1, is set to begin human trials from Thursday, according to media reports.
Scientists at the University of Oxford said that their COVID-19 vaccine candidate would be available by September. Lead researcher Professor Sarah Gilbert claimed that their vaccine can work against SARS-CoV-2. She had earlier said that she is "80%" confident of its success. The scientists have also promised one million doses of the vaccine by September.
Another 22.5 million pounds is being made available to Imperial College London to support its project on COVID-19 vaccine.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) also believe that the Oxford vaccine is the frontrunner in the race to take on the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Dr Raman Gangakhedkar, the chief scientist of ICMR, at least 70 groups of scientists across the world are working towards a novel coronavirus vaccine, out of which five groups have reached human trial phase. He said the Oxfort vaccine, ChAdOx1, is leading the race.
The WHO's latest "Draft landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines (April 11 update) lists only three candidate vaccines as currently in human clinical evaluation.
The potential COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's CanSino Biological, in partnership with the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, is the first and the one only to reach phase two trials, so far.
U.S. drug companies Moderna and Inovio Pharmaceuticals are the other two developers testing vaccines on humans. Both are currently in phase one. Moderna is conducting the human trial of their vaccine, called mRNA-1273, along with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Inovio Pharmaceuticals' DNA vaccine candidate, named INO-4800, works by injecting a specifically engineered plasmid (a small, independent genetic structure) into the body. This enables the cells to produce a desired, targeted antibody to fight off a specific infection.
Recently, China has approved early-stage human tests for two more experimental vaccines to combat the novel coronavirus. The vaccines are being developed by a Beijing-based unit of Nasdaq-listed Sinovac Biotech, and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, an affiliate of state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group.
US-based biotechnology firm Novavax is also ready to start the human clinical trial of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate called NVX-CoV2373 next month (May). NVX-CoV2373 is a stable prefusion protein made using the company's nanoparticle technology.
In India, Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) has collaborated with US-based biotechnology firm Codagenix Inc to develop a virus-vaccine candidate which is closest to the novel coronavirus.
SII CEO Adar Poonawalla told a news agency that human trials of the vaccine may commence by September-October.
