“By 2022, we will see the emergence of improved vaccines,” Soumya Swaminathan said.
The new Covid-19 vaccines, including those that do not require needles and can be stored at room temperature, may be ready for use later this year or next year, said the world’s top scientist of Health.
Six to eight new vaccines may complete clinical trials and be subject to regulatory review by the end of the year, said Saturday Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist at the Geneva-based agency.
The new vaccines will be added to the 10 that are already proven to work in a year after Covid-19 is declared a pandemic. The world needs more vaccines, especially because the continued circulation of the virus generates new dangerous variants and drug manufacturers are struggling to comply with orders. According to data collected by Bloomberg, only 122 countries have started vaccinating people.
“We are thrilled with the vaccines we have,” said Swaminathan, an Indian pediatrician best known for her research on tuberculosis and HIV. But “we can improve even more,” he said. “I think that well into 2022, we will see the emergence of improved vaccines.”
The current culture of experimental vaccines uses alternative technologies and delivery systems, and includes more single-shot vaccines and vaccines that are administered orally, by nasal spray, and through the skin by a type of patch. These could bring more appropriate vaccines to specific groups, such as pregnant women, according to Swaminathan.
More than 80 candidate vaccines in people are being studied, although some are still in the early stages of testing and may not be successful. Companies with Covid-19 vaccines that are already in use have also begun testing upgraded versions designed to frustrate coronavirus variants that have appeared in recent months.
Reinforcement shots
“We must continue to support the research and development of more vaccine candidates, especially because the need for continued immunization to strengthen populations is not yet very clear at this time,” Swaminathan said. “So we have to be prepared for that in the future.”
The WHO Strategic Advisory Group on Immunization is reviewing whether people who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 need to take two doses of vaccine. Some research indicates that a natural infection works to prepare the immune response to SARS-CoV-2, just like a first dose, making a second injection unnecessary.
Giving just one dose of vaccine to Covid-19 survivors could release more supplies, Swaminathan said, though it could present “practical and logistical challenges in many countries” if blood tests are needed to measure patients’ antibody levels. before deciding whether to do a second hit is guaranteed.
The implementation of safe and effective vaccines also raises questions about how to conduct clinical trials of experimental vaccines in an efficient and ethical manner, he said. Placebos will be replaced by a “gold standard” vaccine in a so-called non-inferiority design when it is no longer ethical to use a placebo, Swaminathan said.
Global test
Meanwhile, one approach the WHO is exploring is to compare three or four candidate vaccines simultaneously with a placebo. A similar study design was used to test the efficacy of pharmacological therapies for Covid-19, and it may mean that trial participants would have an 80% chance of receiving an experimental vaccine and only a 20% chance. of probabilities of receiving placebo.
“We are now in talks with several companies with vaccines in development to see if we could launch something like this on a global testing platform,” said Swaminathan, who added that he is optimistic that this study could begin in the first half of 2021.
He noted that a global trial with a wide range of people and countries offers several advantages. Trying vaccines in various ethnicities, age groups, and people with different medical conditions makes the results more generalizable, and when the epidemic subsides in some parts of the world, it is often still active in others, he said.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)