Newsletter 15_versión inglés

New Approved Vaccines

Against COVID-19

Picture Source of New York Times by Jonathan Corum, Denise Grady, Sui-Lee Wee and Carl Zimmer.

New York, NY in USA, Updated in August 14, 2020 (appro.) .- Researchers around the world are developing more than 165 vaccines against the coronavirus, and 31 vaccines are in human trials. Vaccines typically require years of research and testing before reaching the clinic, but scientists are racing to produce a safe and effective vaccine by next year in 2021.

The first Two Vaccines Approved for Early or Limited use are:

Beiging Chinese Republic Updated Aug. 10.- The Chinese company CanSino Biologics developed a vaccine based on an adenovirus called Ad5, in partnership with the Institute of Biology at the country’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences. In May, they published promising results from a Phase 1 safety trial, and in July they reported that their Phase 2 trials demonstrated the vaccine produced a strong immune response. In an unprecedented move, the Chinese military approved the vaccine on June 25 for a year as a “specially needed drug.” CanSino would not say whether vaccination would be mandatory or optional for soldiers. On August 9, the Saudi health ministry announced that CanSino Biologics would run a Phase 3 trial in Saudi Arabia. The company is in negotiations with other countries for more trials.

Moscow Russian Federation Updated Aug. 14.- The Gamaleya Research Institute, part of Russia’s Ministry of Health, launched a Phase 1 trial in June of a vaccine they called Gam-COVID-Vac Lyo. It is a combination of two adenoviruses, Ad5 and Ad26, both engineered with a coronavirus gene. In July, the chair of the upper house of Russia’s Parliament announced the country might start vaccine production by the end of the year. On Aug. 11, President Vladimir V. Putin announced that a Russian health care regulator had approved the vaccine, renamed Sputnik V, before Phase 3 trials had even begun. Vaccine experts decried the move as risky. Nevertheless, Tass reported, Vietnam soon agreed to purchase 50 to 150 million doses.

Russian authorities claimed on Saturday that they had produced their first batch of the coronavirus vaccine, announced earlier in the week by President Vladimir Putin and received with skepticism by the rest of the world.

"The first batch of the new coronavirus vaccine has been produced at the Gamaleya Research Center," the Russian Health Ministry said in a statement, cited by Russian press agencies.

President Putin said Tuesday that a first "Quite Effective" vaccine was registered in Russia by the Nikolai Gamaleya Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow, in association with the Russian Defense Ministry.