WHERE WE STAND ON A COVID-19 JAB

THERE are over 200 vaccines against COVID-19 under development including 55 in human clinical trials and 13 in the final stages of testing. Today we spotlight 15 key candidates, four of which the Australian government has agreed to purchase.

US PFIZER/BIONTECH’S

vaccine is 95 per cent effective in preventing COVID-19. The company is seeking approval to market it in Australia which has ordered enough to vaccinate 5 million people next year.

US MODERNA’S

is 94.5 per cent effective in preventing COVID-19 with the company seeking approval to go to market. Australia does not have a deal to buy this vaccine but could access it through international vaccine supply arrangement Covax.

UK OXFORD/ASTRA

ZENECA’S

vaccine is up to 90 per cent effective in preventing

COVID. Australia’s CSL began making 30 million doses earlier this month and the first batch will be ready by Christmas. Australians will get it from March next year.

US NOVAVAX’S

vaccine is in Phase 2-3 trials. Due to report next year the company aims to make at least 100 million doses by the end of the year. Australia has a deal to obtain 40 million doses in 2021.

AUSTRALIA

The University of Queensland vaccine is currently in Phase 1 clinical trials in Brisbane. The federal government has a deal to buy 51 million doses manufactured by CSL, available by mid-2021.

CHINA

CANSINO BIOLOGICS’ vaccine Convidecia is in final phase testing. It was approved as a “specially needed drug” for soldiers in China in July. Early trial results in The Lancet medical journal showed it was safe, and produced an immune response in the majority of recipients after one dose.

SINOPHARM’S

vaccine, developed by Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, is still in the final phase of testing but has been given to more than a million people including essential workers in China and the United Arab Emirates, the company claims. “There has not been a single case of infection after inoculation.”

Sinopharm is making another vaccine developed by the Beijing Institute of

10,000 health workers in Russia.

EPIVACCORONA,

a peptide-based vaccine, was successful in early clinical trials. More trials are under way.

CSL’S Dr Andrew Nash shows a vial. Picture: GETTY