Where are we in the Covid-19 vaccine race?
- by Virginia Carter
- in World Media
- — Oct 8, 2020
"And the way that we convince the general public to do that, and show them that it is in fact beneficial, is to know that it was scrutinized at every level", she said. The vaccine candidate is now being evaluated in a global Phase 3 study ongoing at more than 120 clinical sites worldwide including the United States, Brazil, South Africa and Argentina.
About a month ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed his country's scientists had achieved a breakthrough in the global race to find a vaccine for COVID-19.
A vaccine in opposition to COVID-19 could also be prepared by year-end, the top of the World Health Organization (WHO) stated on Tuesday, with out elaborating.
In late September, Regional Director for Europe at the WHO Hans Kluge thanked Russian Federation for "its excellent efforts to create a safe and effective vaccine".
In Geneva, he said that by the end of this year an authentic vaccine for the corona virus could be ready. This helps World Health Organization member states and United Nations procurement agencies to determine the acceptability of the vaccines.
Pfizer's vaccine is in late-stage studies in the US, Brazil, South Africa, and Argentina.
China has inoculated hundreds of thousands of essential workers and other groups considered at high risk with other vaccines, even as clinical trials had not been fully completed, raising safety concerns among experts.
The rolling review will continue until enough evidence is available to support a formal marketing authorisation application.
The "rolling review" process will allow the EMA to analyse data from the potential vaccines as and when it becomes available, rather than traditional methods of submission that require all the data to be available for review.
Last week, it began reviewing AstraZeneca and Oxford University's vaccine, AZD1222 or ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, increasing chances of the British vaccine becoming the first to be approved in the region for the disease which has killed more than a million people globally.
Then came pressure from the Malaysian Medical Association and some health-related organisations on the federal government before September 18, the deadline for Malaysia to join the global Covax Covid-19 vaccine access plan (The Covax Facility) and commit financially before October 9.
