Besides Oxford, what other vaccines are being tested?

This week, one of the most eagerly awaited news since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic around the world arrived: the vaccine, called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, being developed by the University of Oxford in the UK, has obtained promising results after Phase 1 clinical trials conducted in 1,077 volunteers: it appears "safe" and "trains" the immune system, generating antibodies and white blood cells that can fight the virus. Furthermore, this Wednesday it became known that AstraZeneca, the laboratory that works jointly with the British University, has announced in the US Congress that it could have the vaccine "any time from September" and that it will sell it "at cost price".

It was also announced this week that the Pune-based Serum Institute of India has already started manufacturing the vaccine. Between 2 and 3 million doses are expected to be produced by the end of August, according to the institute's executive director, Suresh Jadhav. New Delhi authorities will also seek permission to conduct Phase 3 trials on Indian soil, which have already begun in the UK, Brazil (20 June) and South Africa (first week of July).

But in addition to Oxford University, other companies and laboratories have entered the race for what appears to be the most feasible solution to halt the spread of the disease around the globe. According to the World Health Organization, there are more than 140 vaccine candidates in pre-clinical evaluation and 24 in clinical evaluation so far. According to The New York Times tracking site, 19 are in phase 1, 13 are in phase 2, and four are in phase 3. 

The first project to be made public was that of the American company Moderna Therapeutics, a Boston-based pharmaceutical company, called Mrna-1273. On Tuesday, it was announced that the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) will conduct part of the Phase 3 trial of the vaccine produced by Moderna, which will begin on July 27, with Dr. Richard Novak as the principal investigator. In total, about 30,000 volunteers will undergo the tests, who will receive either the vaccine or a placebo, and will be monitored at all times. 

Moderna's vaccine, as reported by the local CBS media, requires two doses, one month apart. It was given 28 days apart starting in March to 45 healthy participants divided into three groups between the ages of 18 and 55. The initial results, which were reported on May 18, were successful in eliciting immune responses in all volunteers who were inoculated. On June 1, Phase II began and has lasted until now, involving 600 people. 

"We anticipate that the study will last a minimum of six months, as it is scheduled to last two years. It really depends on how many patients are infected," Novak said, explaining that "the study is designed so that half of the people receive a placebo, which is salt water, and the other half receive the vaccine. And in the end, we want to see fewer cases of infection in vaccine recipients than the placebo. About the volunteers, the researcher revealed that "thousands of people" have come forward, but what they are looking for are those who "are at risk of getting COVID-19 because of their routine, the city they live in, the type of work, and so on, or who, if they get it, fall ill. 

Moderna plans to manufacture approximately 500 million doses per year, with a horizon of expansion to 1 billion doses from 2021.

The Chinese company CanSino Biologics, which has developed the vaccine called Ad5-nCoV in conjunction with the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, is already in negotiations with Russia, Brazil, Chile and Saudi Arabia to conduct Phase 3 clinical trials with up to 40,000 volunteers. On 25 June, the authorities in Beijing approved its use for military personnel for one year.

The Phase 1 and 2 research has revealed that 87% of the 108 volunteers who participated in the first trials had side effects such as fever, fatigue, muscle and head pain, although they were "tolerable". 

On Wednesday, the Singapore Health Sciences Authority approved the start of clinical trials (phase 1 and phase 2 combined) for a coronavirus vaccine candidate, called LUNAR-COV19, which has been developed by Acturus Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company based in San Diego, California; and by Duke-NUS Singaporean Medical School. 

The two entities reported in a joint statement that the voluntary study will include up to 108 adults and will examine various dose levels, since in pre-clinical research, they observed that a single dose of 0.2, 2 or 10 micrograms generated neutralizing antibodies that increased over the next 50 days. Based on preliminary data, Duke-NUS Infectious Disease Program Deputy Director Ooi Eng Eong predicts that "a single dose of this vaccine may be sufficient to trigger robust and long-lasting immune responses". 

Russia's first deputy defence minister, Ruslan Tsalikov, said on Tuesday that "the country's first vaccine against the new coronavirus is ready". Two groups of volunteers have successfully completed clinical trials and all have developed immunity, he said. "At the time of discharge, all volunteers, without exception, built up immunity to the coronavirus and felt fine. Therefore, the first domestic vaccine against coronavirus infection is ready," Tsalikov said in an interview with the AiF newspaper.

The vaccine, which has been developed by the National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology at Gamaleya and the Burdenko Military Clinical Hospital, could "be approved for mass production in August," according to Kirill Dmitriyev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). Up to 200 million doses could be produced by the end of 2020 in collaboration with five other countries, of which 30 million would be produced on national soil, the executive assured. Dmitriyev also revealed that Russia "plans to produce the vaccine developed by Oxfrod University and AstraZenaca". 

This announcement comes just days after Bloomberg revealed that "people from Russia's business and political elite had early access to an experimental vaccine against COVID-19". This group, which includes top executives, billionaire tycoons and government officials, began being inoculated by the Gamaleya State Institute in Moscow in early April, although this information has not been confirmed by authorities. The head of the Research Center, Alexander Ginzbur, also told Interfax that he "is not aware of any government officials or business leaders receiving the vaccine from his institute. 

Other vaccines that have entered the clinical trial phase include Johnson&Johnson, in collaboration with Beth Israel Deaconess Medial Center; Korean company Genexine; US company Inovio; Japan's AnGes, in collaboration with Osaka University and Takara Bio; India's Zydus Cadila; and Germany's BioNTech, in collaboration with New York-based Pfizer and Chinese drug maker Fosun Pharma, among others.