A Russian vaccine against COVID-19 has been tested on humans and it has cleared the Phase I of human trials, with the patients going to be released in a matter of few days.?
This news surely made us feel a little relaxed of the fact that the seven-month ordeal our world has been going through is finally coming to an end. But the clearing of this vaccine¡¯s human test isn¡¯t the end of it, here¡¯s why.
One of the main reasons why this test, even though successful, cannot be considered as the universal vaccine to treat COVID-19 yet was because the sample size on which the vaccine was tested included only 20 volunteers.?
In vaccine trials like these, sample size usually includes hundreds even thousands of participants to see how a vaccine reacts with different age groups, different genders and people with different medical conditions.?
The Moderna Phase III human trials that are currently going on include a sample size of 30,000 volunteers -- 40 is nothing compared to that.?
Another reason why this Russian COVID-19 vaccine cannot be rolled out to the masses just yet is that this was the first phase of human trials.?
There are two more human trials pending, with second one commencing July 13, which hopefully will involve more volunteers and once both trials succeed with flying colours, the vaccine will be further tested by each nation adhering to its protocols and rolling them out in their nation.?
Another reason for being sceptical about this vaccine right now is that the science at play for the vaccine hasn¡¯t been publicly revealed. We don¡¯t know what method it¡¯s using to neutralise COVID-19.?
We know Moderna¡¯s vaccine is using mRNA to form an immune response against COVID-19. Similarly, INO-4800 is a DNA vaccine, which works by injecting an engineered plasmid in a patient¡¯s body to help the body create its own antibodies to ward off the novel coronavirus. We don¡¯t know what Russia is working on and this surely is a little bit concerning.?
Many other pharmaceutical companies are working on bringing a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible. The most prominent one in the race is also the first one to announce that they¡¯re working on a vaccine -- Moderna. They¡¯re currently going through Phase III of its human trials that involve 30,000 test subjects.
Johnson and Johnson has fast tracked its human trials from September to the first half of July. While there¡¯s no further update on this yet, they plan on launching a vaccine by the end of this year.
Similarly, China-based CinSino Pharmaceuticals is also working on commencing Phase III trials for its vaccine Ad5-nCov sometime later this month.