Here’s why two coronavirus vaccine candidates failing in clinical trials is actually good news

[Chris Smith]

• Two coronavirus vaccine candidates failed in clinical trials, indirectly proving that the vaccine development process works.
• The measures put in place will ensure that only the drugs that are both effective and safe will be approved.
• University of Queensland and CSL agreed to stop clinical trials in Australia after researchers found the drug had an unexpected side effect: false-positive HIV diagnoses. The drug delivered a robust response against COVID-19, but a fix could take up to 12 months.
• The Sanofi/GSK drug failed to elicit an effective immune response in people older than 49. The two companies will start a new trial in February, and their new formula could be ready by the end of 2021.

Modern technology allowed hundreds of teams to start coronavirus vaccine testing in the early months of the pandemic. The early release of the SARS-CoV-2 genome was the first breakthrough that made it possible to start testing in labs right away. This led to Phase 1 clinical trials by April and Phase 3 conclusions by mid-November for the three frontrunners. While volunteers received the experimental drugs or a placebo, the companies involved in these projects started setting manufacturing and logistics in motion so that the vaccine could be distributed to those most in need as soon as regulators like the FDA issued emergency approvals.

The Pizer/BioNTech drug was approved in the UK and is expected to get a similar approval in America and the European Union. Moderna’s candidate should follow. The more controversial AstraZeneca/Oxford drug could also be approved in the coming months, although the US might need another Phase 3 trial for it. That’s the short story of the COVID-19 vaccine development history to date in Western countries. Add to that the Russian vaccine that was approved in August and the several Chinese vaccines that are already used in the wild ahead of the Phase 3 study completion, and you get the big COVID-19 vaccine picture for 2020.

But, as all of that was happening, more and more people grew anxious at the thought of getting a vaccine that was developed in record time. Fake news campaigns on social media, as well as the politicization of vaccines ahead of the US presidential election, further eroded public trust in vaccines. That can be a huge problem in the future. If not enough people get vaccinated, herd immunity can’t be reached, and the world will have to deal with the pandemic for even longer than current estimates. Western nations should return to normal by late 2021, according to experts. Herd immunity requires at least 70% of the population to be vaccinated.

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Here’s why two coronavirus vaccine candidates failing in clinical trials is actually good news originally appeared on BGR.com on Fri, 11 Dec 2020 at 21:22:24 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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