The US government has decided to fund and conduct key studies on three experimental coronavirus vaccines being developed by Moderna, Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and Johnson & Johnson.
Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), told a news channel on Wednesday that the coronavirus vaccine effort is progressing very well and that there could be more than one candidate vaccine in advanced clinical testing by early summer. Fauci added that a vaccine at scale is likely by the end of the year or early next year.
The US will be funding and conducting phase 3 trials with Moderna in July, Oxford/AstraZeneca in August and with Johnson & Johnson in September.
The three vaccines chosen for funding
British drugmaker AstraZeneca, which is supporting the University of Oxford project, plans to roll out their vaccine, named AZD1222, for the masses in the month of September or October. The company has already started making the AZD1222 jab in factories in the UK, Switzerland, Norway and India. Formerly known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, the Oxford vaccine is the first vaccine candidate to enter phase 3 studies.
U.S. drug company Moderna is conducting the human trials of its experimental coronavirus vaccine, mRNA-1273, in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). It is currently in crucial phase 2 trials.
Johnson & Johnson on Wednesday said that it will begin the first in-human clinical trial of its experimental SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in the second half of July via its Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies (Janssen). The trial for the vaccine, called Ad26.COV2-S, was initially scheduled to begin in September. The Phase 1/2a study will evaluate the safety, reactogenicity (response to vaccination), and immunogenicity (immune response) of the vaccine. It will be conducted in the US and Belgium.
Gilead’s remdesivir shows promise in animal study
Meanwhile, US drug-maker Gilead Sciences Inc’s investigational antiviral drug remdesivir has shown positive results in a study on macaque monkeys infected with the new coronavirus. The study published in the journal Nature on Tuesday found that remdesivir prevented lung disease in COVID-19 infected monkeys. According to the researchers, the monkeys that received remdesivir did not show signs of respiratory disease and had reduced damage to the lungs. The amount of virus in the lungs of remdesivir-treated animals was also found to be lower than the group that didn’t receive treatment with the antiviral drug. Based on their finding, the authors suggested that remdesivir could be used as early treatment to prevent progression to pneumonia in COVID-19 patients.
Remdesivir has already been approved for emergency use in critical COVID-19 patients in a few countries including, the US, India and South Korea. The drug was also approved last month in Japan under the brand name Veklury. A clinical trial released in late April found that remdesivir reduced hospitalization stays by 31%, or about four days, compared to a placebo. However, there is limited evidence about the safety and effectiveness of remdesivir for treatment people infected with COVID-19.
(With inputs from IANS)