How close are nations in developing coronavirus COVID-19 vaccine: An in-depth look

The world has been battling the deadly coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic on a war footing for more than six months now. Globally the number of cases by Wednesday evening reached 13,349,795 and death toll stood at 579,335. Amidst the crisis, many countries have ramped up their vaccine development and its human trials.

Here are the nations and their progress in developing a COVID-19 vaccine:

US:

14 July: The US biotech firm Moderna said it would enter the final stage of human trials for its COVID-19 vaccine on July 27, after promising early results were published in an influential journal. The Phase 3 trial will recruit 30,000 participants in the US.

India:

14 July: Bharat Biotech has started the first phase of human clinical trials for India’s first coronavirus vaccine candidate Covaxin. Covaxin is being developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research’s Pune-based National Institute of Virology.

On July 3, Zydus Cadila announced its vaccine candidate for COVID-19 successfully completed the preclinical phase and received permission from the Drug Controller General of India - Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) to initiate Phase I/II (combined) human clinical trials. It became the second company in India to enter the Covid-19 vaccine race after Bharat Biotech.

Russia:

There is only one candidate vaccine being developed in Russia which has reached the human clinical trial stage. That candidate, being developed by the Gamalei National Research Centre for Epidemiology and Microbiology, in partnership with the Russian Defence Ministry, had begun phase-I human trials on June 18.

UK:

In the UK, two potential Coronavirus vaccine candidates have raised hopes. One is developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca is at Phase III (final stage of clinical trials). Another is being developed by Imperial College London and they began Phase I/II trials on June 15.

China:

6 July: China's Sinovac Biotech is starting Phase III trials of its potential coronavirus vaccine in Brazil, becoming one of three companies to move into the late stages in the race to develop an inoculation against the disease. The joint development by Beijing Institute of Technology and biotech firm CanSino is in phase 2 of human trials. Wuhan Institute and Sinopharm’s COVID19 vaccine candidate is at the Phase II stage. Beijing Institute of Biological products and Sinopharm’s vaccine candidate is at the Phase II stage.

Japan:

On June 30, the Japanese biotechnology company AnGes announced they had started safety trials on a DNA-based vaccine, developed in partnership with Osaka University and Takara Bio.

Australia:

13 July: Researchers from the Australian biotech company CSL and the University of Queensland began a Phase I human trial with an experimental COVID-19 vaccine.