New Delhi. (Toi) has officially been more than six months since the COVID-19 pandemic, since it started to spread.
According to the latest figures, the infection cases have breached the 6 million mark, with 1,98,700 cases reported out of India alone.
The rising number of cases across the world have paved the way for speedy clinical trials as the hunt for an effective vaccine or cure continues. Experts still suggest that it could take anywhere between 12-16 months for the world to get a ready vaccine to counter the virus. Even so, more than 110 groups around the world are in contention to manufacture a vaccine right now. Some have advanced to the second phase, while others are experimenting with alternative medicines. We give you an update on the latest round of development of the most promising vaccines right now.
Apart from this, there are seven other Indian vaccines in the works which have been okayed by the WHO, some of which are all set to proceed to the human clinical trial phase. Serum Institue of India, amongst them, has partnered with Oxford University in their vaccine clinical trials.
US-based Moderna Therapeutic’s innovative messenger RNA-1273 prototype is being seen as one of the most promising contenders globally. The pharma group has proceeded to conduct stage 2 of the clinical trials and has started dosing patients accordingly, a statement released by the company said. In the second phase of its trial and plans to enrol around 600 more patients moving forward.
Early data collated from the first phase of the vaccine trial have been by and large successful which showed that mRNA-1272 spike protein was able to speed up the production of neccessary antibodies in healthy patients. If deemed effective, the pharmaceutical giant plans to start mass-scale production to fight the ongoing battle.
While the vaccine is being tested in a speedy way, just last week, the vaccine makers hit a low when a report observed possible side-effects in volunteers who had taken part in the trial. One of the patients who had taken part in a trial reported getting chills, nausea and aching cramps and muscle pain after getting the second dosage for the same. The critical observations are being looked onto for the same.
