The Russian coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V, which is undergoing Phase III clinical trials, has suffered a setback. The clinical trials across several centres in Moscow had to be paused after they ran out of stock to vaccinate volunteers, said a report. The Ministry of External Affairs has said India’s vaccine production and delivery capabilities will be utilised to take coronavirus vaccines to the world population.
The Covid-19 vaccine frontrunners such as Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca are going strong with their clinical trials and the companies have said they are on track.
Setback for Russian vaccine trials
According to a Reuters report, Russia has temporarily suspended trials of coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V due to high demand and a shortage of doses at the Moscow clinical trial centres. At 8 of the 25 Moscow clinics hosting the trial and inoculating volunteers, staff told Reuters the vaccination of new participants was on hold, with several saying they had used up the doses allocated to their clinics and referencing a large influx of volunteers.
The shortage of doses is the latest challenge to Moscow's ambitious and unorthodox vaccine plan, which has seen the government give regulatory go-ahead for the shot - and launch the mass inoculation of the general public - before full tests for safety and efficacy were complete.
Dr Reddy's Laboratories, which is conducting the India trials of Sputnik V, had to pause the trials after the Indian drug controller ordered a stop. Dr Reddy's Labs had also suffered a data breach in its servers.
India to take vaccine to world
The Centre has said India's vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help all humanity in fighting the coronavirus crisis. India will be helping countries in enhancing their cold chain and storage capacities as well.
MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava has said India has organised two training modules for its neighbouring countries in which about 90 health experts and scientists participated.
"As announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech to the UN General Assembly last month, India's vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help all humanity in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic," Srivastava said.
BCG vaccine working for elderly
According to a latest ICMR study, the popular BCG vaccine used to protect children from tuberculosis, has shown positive results after being administered to a group of elderly persons in India.
Early results have shown the BCG vaccine is effective in modulating two types of immune responses among the elderly. Experts believe the BCG vaccine could have potential utility against coronavirus.
Moderna trial data next month?
American drug maker Moderna has said it is on track with its late-stage trial of the coronavirus vaccine candidate and the reports from its early data can be expected next month. Moderna has given a clear timeline for its data availability on the vaccine trials.
Moderna, one of the frontrunners in the global race to produce vaccines to protect against coronavirus, said an independent data monitoring committee is expected to conduct an interim review of its ongoing 30,000-person trial in November.
The US-based pharma company, Moderna, has said it is preparing to distribute the coronavirus vaccine, known as mRNA-1273, and expects to be able to produce 20 million doses by the end of the year, and between 500 million and 1 billion in 2021.
US could have first vaccine in Dec-Jan
Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US disease expert has said if everything is on track and goes well, US may have the first coronavirus vaccine by late December or early January 2021.
Based on current projections from vaccine frontrunners Moderna Inc and Pfizer Inc, Americans will likely know "sometime in December whether or not we have a safe and effective vaccine," Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a live chat on Twitter and Facebook.
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