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What are the latest advances in COVID-19 vaccine? Can currently licensed vaccines protect against newer variants of SARS-CoV-2? In this Hope Behind the Headlines feature, we take a look at these and other questions.
New, and possibly more contagious, variants of SARS-CoV-2 – which is the virus that causes COVID-19 – are emerging in countries around the world. Add to that the fact that the global number of COVID-19 cases is currently over 95 million, and it can be difficult to remain optimistic that we will soon see the end of the pandemic.
Yet scientists have not stopped working on vaccines, which are essential in controlling the spread of the novel coronavirus in the long term.
In this article titled Hope Behind the Headlines, we take a look at what experts have to say about whether currently licensed vaccines are likely to protect us against newer variants of SARS-CoV-2.
We also provide an overview of a promising vaccine candidate currently in trial, which recently made headlines.
Experts have explained time and again that to contain SARS-CoV-2 and prevent more coronavirus outbreaks in the future, vaccines are of the utmost importance.
Currently, eight COVID-19 vaccines are authorized in countries around the world.
So far, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is an mRNA vaccine, has obtained approval for use in 50 countries. These include the United States, the United Kingdom and the 27 countries that make up the European Union.
The vaccine developed by Moderna and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is also an mRNA vaccine, is currently licensed in 36 countries. These include the US, UK and EU countries.
Sputnik V, a viral vector vaccine developed by the Russian research institute Gamaleya, is licensed in eight countries: Algeria, Argentina, Belarus, Bolivia, Guinea, Russia, Serbia and the West Bank.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca viral vector vaccine, which has been approved for use in seven countries, is close to him. These are Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, India, Mexico, Morocco and the United Kingdom
Other vaccines that have obtained authorization in some countries are:
- Covishield, a viral vector vaccine authorized in India
- Covaxin, an inactivated vaccine authorized in India
- the Sinopharm vaccine, also inactivated, which is authorized in six countries, including China, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates
- the Sinovac vaccine, also inactivated, which is authorized in China, Indonesia and Turkey
At a global forum held on January 15, 2021, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus – Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) – said:
“The development and approval of several safe and effective vaccines within a year of this virus being isolated and sequenced is a staggering scientific achievement.”
The UK has imposed new lockdowns in the face of growing cases of COVID-19. These increasing numbers may be due to a new, apparently more infectious variant of SARS-CoV-2.
South Africa and Brazil have also reported the emergence of new variants that have raised concerns.
One of the main questions people around the world are asking about the emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2 is: Will COVID-19 vaccines be effective against them?
So far, specialists and pharmaceutical companies producing the currently available vaccines have expressed optimism about the effectiveness of vaccines against emerging variants and strains.
Talking to Medical News Today Earlier this month, Pfizer and the NIAID said there was no reason to suspect their vaccines would not work against the SARS-CoV-2 variant identified in the UK.
“At present, scientists at NIAID believe that the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines supported by Operation Warp Speed will provide protection against SARS-CoV-2. [U.K. variant], including […] Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines cleared for emergency use by the United States Food and Drug Administration [FDA]. “
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna-NIAID, whose vaccines are currently licensed in the US and UK, offer mRNA vaccines. These contain genetic information about the virus.
Our cells then make the viral protein Spike encoded in this information and present it to our immune system. This, in turn, allows our immune system to “learn” how to fight the virus, which will equip us for future SARS-CoV-2 infections.
Experts say mRNA technology is adaptable enough that in theory scientists can easily “tweak” mRNA vaccines to ensure their effectiveness against emerging strains or variants of a virus.
Dr. Uğur Şahin, CEO of BioNTech, said the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is expected to work against different variants of SARS-CoV-2, which his colleagues have already tested the vaccine against. He also noted that in all cases their vaccine is easily adaptable.
Other scientists have also noted that at least some of the COVID-19 vaccines that have received clearance around the world should be adaptable in order to remain effective against emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2.
Regarding the variant that emerged in South Africa, Dr Julian W. Tang – a clinical virologist at the University of Leicester in the UK – commented:
“Even if the South African variant becomes more widespread and dominant, mRNA (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna) and adenovirus vector (Oxford-AstraZeneca and Russian Sputnik V) vaccines can be modified to be closer and more effective against this variant in a few months. “
“Meanwhile,” he added, “most of us believe that existing vaccines are likely to work to some extent in reducing rates of infection / transmission and severe disease against UK variants and South African – as the various mutations have done. do not altered S protein [which helps the virus gain entry into healthy cells] that the current antibodies induced by the vaccine will not bind at all. “
Although some vaccines have already obtained approval for use in various countries, there are still many candidate vaccines in clinical trials.
Some of the candidates in late-stage trials show promise, offering hope that more vaccines may be available globally by the end of 2021.
One of the main candidates is the vaccine candidate developed by the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson. This candidate is also known as the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
Johnson & Johnson’s experimental viral vector vaccine uses a modified adenovirus, or common cold virus, as the “basis” of the vaccine candidate. This carries the gene for the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein.
Unlike some of the vaccines that have already obtained approval for use, the company is testing this candidate vaccine as both a single-dose and two-dose regimen to build immunity.
The Janssen COVID-19 vaccine candidate was already showing promise in early trials, although these were briefly halted in October 2020 due to one of the trial participants developing an ‘unexplained illness’.
Trials have since resumed and the company recently made available interim results from Phases 1 and 2.
These results indicate that the vaccine candidate was well tolerated by participants overall, suggesting that it is safe. The vaccine candidate also appeared to induce an immune response in those who received it, suggesting that it may also be effective against SARS-CoV-2.
Data from the Phase 3 trial should also be available by the end of January, according to a statement from Johnson & Johnson. Once this data is available, the company hopes to file an emergency use authorization application with the FDA.
According to a recent New York Times report, Dr Paul Stoffels – the scientific director of Johnson & Johnson – commented that “I hope somewhere in March [the company will] be able to contribute ”to the vaccination efforts in the United States
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