The whole world is now eagerly waiting for one thing, i.e., the COVID-19 vaccine!
Many pharmaceutical, biotech companies, and medical institutions are already conducting trials of their vaccines.
As the sources say, 155 different COVID-19 vaccines are under trials globally.
Of these, 23 have entered the human trial phase, and 135 others are restricted to animal trials.
As the sources say, 15 vaccines have entered the first phase of the trial, and experiments are being conducted on a limited number of humans to assess the immunity.
Around 11 vaccines have entered the second phase, where the vaccine will be tested on hundreds of people after categorizing them into groups.
In the second phase, the vaccine will be considered effective if it can protect at least 50 percent of the population from the COVID-19 infection.
There are around 4 vaccines in the third phase, where the trials will be conducted on thousands of people to check if the vaccine is effective in infection control.
In the fourth phase, the vaccine ‘successful under trials’ will be distributed to the respective institutions of all countries, who will then decide its ability to get approved.
In emergency cases, the vaccine is often released without this approval phase.
Different Types of COVID-19 Vaccines under Trials Include:
1) First type is Genetic Vaccine, which will be used to develop immunity in the body using the coronavirus genes. Around 10 organizations are working on genetic vaccines.
2) Second type is Viral Vector Vaccine, where the COVID-19 virus genes will be transported to cells of the body to check the body immunity against it. 8 such vaccines are currently under trials across the world.
3) Third type is the Protein-based Vaccine, where proteins in the COVID-19 vaccine are used to activate body immunity against the virus. Globally, around 9 companies are experimenting with this vaccine type, globally.
4) Fourth type is Whole-Virus Vaccine, where a non-active or weak virus is injected into the body that should ideally start acting against the virus. 4 such vaccines are currently under trails, globally.
Bharat Biotech and ICMR are jointly working on this Whole-Virus vaccine, and human trials are underway in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
5) There is also the fifth type called Repurposed Vaccine, where the vaccine already used for any other disease may also work for COVID-19.
Currently, a vaccine developed by a Chinese company has been allowed on June 25, 2020, for limited use, globally.
While these many vaccines are under different trials, the World Health Organization (WHO) says only one or two vaccines might be available by the end of 2020.
These two vaccines in the global race are from Moderna and AstraZeneca.
