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The pharmaceutical industry around the world is researching vaccines and drugs against the coronavirus at full speed.

According to estimates by the World Health Organization, there are currently 48 vaccine projects in clinical development, of which more than ten are in the crucial phase III with several thousand test subjects.

In Russia and China, vaccines were approved before the results of the efficacy studies were available.

After the partners Biontech and Pfizer as well as the US company Moderna, Astra Zeneca from Great Britain announced a decisive success in vaccine development on Monday.

Here is an overview of the vaccine candidates in late clinical development:

Biontech and Pfizer

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The two partners were the first developers worldwide to present positive efficacy data from a study in the final phase.

According to this, the risk of developing Covid-19 for study participants who received the vaccine was 95 percent lower than without the vaccine.

The companies have now applied for emergency approval for the vaccine from the FDA.

If the light is green, vaccinations could begin in the US from mid or late December.

Documents have also been submitted to the European approval authority EMA.

The registration study with the vaccine BNT162b2 began at the end of July.

It includes up to 44,000 participants.

The vaccine is based on a new approach known as messenger RNA (mRNA).

Such a vaccine should be able to be produced more quickly on a large scale than conventional ones, but it also requires more cooling, which makes logistics difficult.

Moderna

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The US company Moderna was the second company to publish positive interim results of its approval-relevant study in mid-November.

Accordingly, the vaccine, which is also based on the mRNA approach, shows an effectiveness of 94.5 percent in protecting against Covid-19.

Moderna expects to be able to apply for an emergency permit in the US in the coming weeks.

The European Medicines Agency has launched an accelerated approval process for the vaccine.

The US government is supporting the project with nearly a billion dollars.

The biotech group was the first company to start a phase I clinical study with a corona vaccine in mid-March.

The decisive phase III efficacy study began at the end of July with 30,000 participants.

Astra Zeneca

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The British pharmaceutical company has now also published study results on its vaccine candidate, which it is developing together with Oxford University.

The interim analysis found that the vaccine was 90 percent effective when a half dose was given initially, followed by a full dose at least a month later.

In a second variant, two full doses were administered, the effectiveness was therefore 62 percent.

If you combine these values, you get around 70 percent, according to Astra Zeneca.

Talks with the US FDA are scheduled to begin this week, and the developers are also in contact with the UK and European authorities.

Astra Zeneca's vaccine is conventionally manufactured and is a so-called vector vaccine based on monkey adenoviruses.

It can be stored at refrigerator temperature.

Curevac

The Tübingen vaccine developer started clinical trials of its candidate in June.

In the phase I study, in which more than 250 volunteers participated, the vaccine from Curevac was tested in different doses.

It showed a good tolerance and a balanced immune response.

Before the end of the year, the decisive effectiveness study is to start with up to 30,000 test subjects worldwide.

The federal government is supporting the project with up to 252 million euros; in the summer he invested 300 million euros at Curevac.

Curevac main owner and SAP co-founder Dietmar Hopp expects approval in spring or summer 2021, but possibly even earlier in a restricted form.

Johnson & Johnson

The US pharmaceutical company started the Phase III efficacy study, in which around 60,000 people are to take part, at the end of September.

Results should be available by the end of this year, early next year.

J&J had to suspend its pivotal study because of an unexplained disease in a subject.

The investigation restarted in October after a control panel gave it the go-ahead.

Sinovac

The CoronaVac vaccine from the Chinese biotech company is one of a handful of Chinese vaccine candidates in clinical phase III.

Tests are under way with thousands of volunteers in Indonesia, Turkey and Brazil, one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic.

Study dates are expected in November.

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At the beginning of October, the governor of the Brazilian state of São Paulo asked the local health authority Anvisa to approve the Sinovac vaccine.

It is one of the vaccines that were administered to tens of thousands of people in the Chinese government's emergency program before clinical trials were completed.

Sinopharm

The state-owned Chinese biotech group is testing two different vaccine projects in phase III studies.

In mid-July, a large-scale test began in the United Arab Emirates with 15,000 volunteers.

Argentina, Peru, Morocco and Bahrain have also approved phase III tests with the Sinopharm candidate.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Sinopharm was offering its vaccines free of charge to Chinese students who are going abroad to study.

Around 480,000 people have already been vaccinated with the vaccine, and around 93,000 more have applied for the vaccination.

Gamaleya Institute

The Russian Ministry of Health released the vaccine, which is to be marketed abroad under the name "Sputnik V", on August 11 - even before the results of the Phase III studies were available.

In two smaller tests in June and July, according to the specialist magazine “Lancet”, all 76 participants developed antibodies and did not show any serious side effects.

A large study is now underway that will include 40,000 participants.

According to interim results, the vaccine showed an effectiveness of 92 percent against Covid-19.