As the community struggles to cope with the State of Alarm and its implications, news about a vaccine or a cure for the coronavirus is a ray of hope for many. Scientists and medics across the globe are working together in the race to find a solution. Flu vaccines, arthritis medicine, HIV medication and even antimalaria drugs are being tested to check their effectiveness against Covid-19. The idea is that either a new drug can be developed or, existing medication can be repurposed to halt the spread of the global pandemic.
Usually, the development of a vaccine can take years. A virus is made up of microscopic, parasitic pieces of genetic material that replicate inside another organism. Vaccines, such as that for measles, are typically made out of weakened forms of the virus itself.
The global scientific community is now fast tracking results and bypassing the usual scientific steps – such as the animal testing phase – to find or develop a drug that will effectively treat and kill the virus that causes Covid-19.
China leads the field
The first country to fall victim to the virus is leading the field in the search for a vaccine. Back in December, China alerted the WHO (World Health Organisation) to several cases of an unusual pneumonia in Wuhan, a city in the Hubei province with a population of 11 million people. At that stage, the virus and its implications were unknown.
Chinese company, Beijing Advaccine Biotechnology is working with a US biotech company called Inovio Pharmaceuticals. They are in the process of developing a “DNA vaccine” called INO-4800. This vaccine is already at preclinical trial stage. INO-4800 will inject genetic material into a person which would trigger a stronger immune response in order that the person is better able to stop a potential infection.
Human trials
Elsewhere in China, news emerged this week that CanSino Biologics Inc. received Chinese regulatory approval to start human trials of a vaccine against the novel coronavirus.
The vaccine, co-developed by the Hong Kong-listed company and China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences, will undergo clinical trials in Wuhan, CanSino Biologics said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Wednesday last.
Under normal circumstances, a vaccine could take years to reach human clinical trials as scientists would conduct a battery of animal testing first before officials would give the go ahead for further trials to determine its safety for human testing.
Human trials in the United States of a potential vaccine called mRNA-1273 have already begun. Biotechnology company Moderna Therapeutics have injected four patients with the vaccine at a research facility in Seattle.
Instead of creating the mRNA-1273 vaccine from the coronavirus, scientists copied a short segment of genetic code from the virus. Although human trials have already commenced, it could take 12 months for conclusive results.
Worldwide progress
JAPAN: In mid January, Japan became the first country to confirm a case of the coronavirus outside China. Japanese firm Fujifilm, famed as a photographic industry giant in its day, also manufactures a drug called Favipiravir. The drug appears to be effective in treating coronavirus, especially those with mild symptoms.
EUROPE: Here in Europe, Germany’s BioNTech has emerged as a major player in terms of vaccine development. On Monday last it announced that it was working with Fosun Pharma in China to develop an experimental vaccine. The very next day, it confirmed it would collaborate with American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to develop the drug outside of China. It hopes to begin the testing phase in early April.
Meanwhile, news emerged that the German government was trying to stop the Trump administration from trying to convince CureVac, another German medical manufacturer, to move its research to the US. German politicians insisted that no country should have a monopoly on any future vaccine.
German newspapers reported that US President Donald Trump had offered funds to lure CureVac to the United States, and that the German government was making counter-offers to tempt it to stay. The US Ambassador in Germany denied the claims.
How close is the cure?
By the end of January, scientists in China were already looking into how existing medication might be repurposed in the fight against coronavirus.
One of the first such drugs explored in China with some success was an ant malaria medication chloroquine phosphate. Chinese officials confirmed in February that the drug has already been under clinical trial in more than 10 hospitals.
According to officials there, patients treated with chloroquine saw a greater drop in fever, an improvement in their lung scans and required a shorter time to recover compared to control groups.
Another drug currently being tested in China is a Swiss-made anti-inflammation drug called Tocilizumab which suppresses overreactions by the immune system.
American made antiviral drug remdesivir has also demonstrated promising results in trials with over 200 very ill patients.
Remdesivir was originally developed by Gilead Sciences to treat Ebola patients. It had good results in the lab and during the animal testing phase but was less successful in the field. Nevertheless, global health experts have deemed it the most promising of possible treatments for people with severe cases of the virus.
In France, pharmaceutical company Sanofi revealed that it can offer millions of doses of Plaquenil, an antimalarial drug which it claims is ‘promising’. The company said it could potentially treat 300,000 patients with Plaquenil and that it is also working with partner company, Regeneron on a clinical trial of rheumatoid arthritis drug Kevzara to check its efficacy.
Promising news
The Quantitative Biosciences Institute Coronavirus Research Group at the University of California has identified more than 50 drugs already on the market that may be effective in treating people infected with the virus.
The group, consisting hundreds of scientists, has taken a different approach from many in the industry. Rather than looking for drugs that attack the virus itself, they are exploring drugs that will protect the proteins in our own cells that the coronavirus depends on to thrive and reproduce. With this type of treatment, our own systems will fight the virus. A project of this scale would usually take around two years to complete, but working together across 22 laboratories in the US, scientists managed the results in just a few weeks.