(Fighting New Coronary Pneumonia) The global new crown vaccine research and development progress continues, how far is it from the market?
China News Service, Beijing, August 14 (Li Jingze, Huang Yuqin) World Health Organization Director-General Tan Desai said at a press conference on the 13th that the new crown vaccine development process is complicated, risky and costly. The world needs many different types of candidate vaccines. . When a new vaccine is successfully developed, demand will exceed supply.
Local time August 11, 2020, Moscow, Russia, Binnopharm's new crown vaccine production laboratory. Image source: People's Vision
From research and development to supply, the WHO has continued to pay attention to the new crown vaccine, and many countries in the world have already invested in vaccine research and development. Multiple technical routes are in parallel and are constantly racing against the virus.
According to data from the WHO on August 6, currently, of the 165 new crown vaccines officially registered by the WHO for development, 139 are in the initial stage of development and 26 are in the clinical testing stage. Of the six vaccines entering the phase III clinical trial, three are from China.
In addition to China, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany are also in the first echelon of vaccine development. According to media reports, the United States hopes to develop a new crown virus vaccine by December; Oxford University's new crown virus vaccine experiment has entered the third phase; a vaccine jointly developed by a German biotech company and an American company has also launched a phase three clinical trial at the end of July. In addition, Turkey and Kazakhstan have announced that they will start clinical trials.
Generally speaking, a vaccine needs to pass the test of three or three phases of clinical trials from clinical trials to market launches. Regarding the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine in the population, the sample size of the three phases was successively expanded, ranging from dozens of people to several thousand people or even tens of thousands. Finally, the scientific basis for the approval of the vaccine for marketing was obtained.
Recently, Russia announced the registration of the world's first new coronavirus vaccine, saying that it "can form a stable immunity and has passed all inspections" and "should be mass-produced in the shortest time." As soon as the news came out, it caused heated discussions around the world. It was not only surprised at the speed of Russia's development of the new crown vaccine, but also controversial because the vaccine was registered before the third phase of clinical trials.
In this regard, some people, including Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, questioned the claim that the vaccine can be used on a large scale. However, some voices believe that the vaccine developer has many years of experience and used related technologies. In view of the emergency situation of the epidemic, there is no need to postpone registration.
As one of the first countries to control the epidemic, China's vaccine research and development has always been among the top in the world. At present, the recombinant new crown vaccine developed by the team led by Chen Wei, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and researcher of the Academy of Military Medicine of the Academy of Military Sciences, is advancing phase three international clinical trials. The inactivated vaccine developed by Sinopharm Group Sino Biotech has entered the phase III clinical trial stage and has the capacity for mass production.
For vaccine research and development, China has always adhered to the parallel five technical routes of virus inactivated vaccines, nucleic acid vaccines, recombinant protein vaccines, adenovirus vector vaccines, and attenuated influenza virus vector vaccines. These five routes have their own advantages and disadvantages, which complement each other and can improve the efficiency of vaccine research and development.
At present, the number of people infected with new coronary pneumonia in the world has exceeded the 20,200,000 mark, and everyone is eager for the vaccine to be put into use as soon as possible. It is worth noting that this urgent heart is at risk of being "utilized". Recently, there was a chaos selling the new crown vaccine on Chinese social media.
Someone publicly released vaccine sales information on WeChat Moments, involving the products of two companies, each with a price of nearly 500 yuan (RMB), which is tempting. At present, the two companies have dispelled the rumors: the related products have not yet been officially launched. An expert who participated in the drafting of the "People's Republic of China Vaccine Management Law" told the official media that under normal circumstances, a vaccine has to go through a relatively long process from the beginning of the research and development to the market. The outer packaging of the new crown vaccine issued in the circle of friends Even if the pictures can be traced, it does not mean that they have been approved for marketing.
Zhang Wenhong, director of the Department of Infectious Diseases, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, pointed out that from the current level of prevention and control of the new crown epidemic in China, it is recommended that the public should not be too anxious about the launch of vaccines, even if according to the current traditional prevention and control models and capabilities, before the vaccine is released, It can also guarantee the stable and orderly development of the domestic economy.
The chaos that vaccines have been “listed” on social media before they have been successfully developed has sounded the alarm for people who are looking forward to it. If this is true within a country, it is not difficult to foresee the whole world, and there are many uncertainties in the development of vaccines to the market.
In particular, Tan Desai reminded that urgent demand and supply competition have made "vaccine nationalism" emerging, and there is a risk of pushing up vaccine prices.
In this regard, Tang Bei, an associate researcher at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Shanghai International Studies University, once wrote that it is necessary to formulate and implement immunization and vaccination strategies on a global level based on the principle of maximizing the effectiveness of immunization. In addition to scientific planning, national Political determination is also indispensable to mutual understanding and solidarity.
Li Yinuo, chief representative of the Gates Foundation's Beijing representative office, pointed out that vaccinations should give priority to susceptible populations led by medical staff, followed by populations that are likely to cause super-transmission events, as well as the elderly over 65 years of age and patients with underlying diseases. She believes that the order of priority based on this principle will transcend national boundaries, reduce deaths and costs as much as possible on a global scale, and accelerate the return of society to normalcy. (Finish)