It concerns the agent AZD1222, which is being developed by the University of Oxford and the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. The vaccine is still under development, but because of the hopeful initial signals, the Netherlands, together with three other European countries, has concluded a deal for a total of 300 million doses. The United States ordered 400 million doses.
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The first test results will be shared on Monday in The Lancet, a major journal of medical science. But even if the results are positive, there is still a long way to go.
Before an agent can be put on the market, an agent is first tested in different phases. In phase 1 testing is only done on animals and in a laboratory and this is being extended continuously, until phase 3 is testing on large groups of people. AZD1222 is already in phase 3, but The Lancet is publishing the results of phase 1.
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More contenders
Oxford’s research isn’t the only contender to become the first corona vaccine, by the way. According to the latest reports from WHO there are currently 163 ‘vaccine candidates’, 23 of which are far enough to test on humans.
The Royal Dutch Society for Microbiology (KNVM) holds the status of vaccines and WHO information. The association ranks British research among the contenders, but currently sees even more ‘front runners’.
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1.2 billion vaccines
Chinese Sinovac also started phase 3 last week. They will test the vaccine in Brazil on about 9000 hospital employees. Meanwhile, they are also working to set up facilities to produce 100 million vaccines per year.
Another important front runner at the moment is the German BioNtech, together with the American Pfizer. Their phase 1 studies were very hopeful, and by July they will give their drug to 30,000 volunteers. In addition, they have a considerable production capacity: they expect to have 100 million doses ready by the end of the year, and that may reach 1.2 billion by the end of 2021.
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According to the KNVM, the combination of a safe agent and sufficient production capacity will determine which agent will ultimately become the most important vaccine against corona.
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