Race against Pandemic - An insight on current vaccine development

As winter has come already, so does the other wave of COVID-19. However, the situation is a bit serious but a bit different. Yes, the race of vaccines across the globe. Currently, FDA has approved vaccines (derived by Pfizer and BioNTech) as safe, and a few months back, the UK has made Pfizer’s vaccine applicable to use among their population.

About one or two months back, Pfizer and BioNTech came up with a vaccine of 95 percent efficacy in Clinical Trial Phase III and got approved. The vaccine, unlike previous others, is an mRNA, which was found to be stored at -70 C and expensive. However, as mentioned, FDA has now approved Pfizer’s vaccine but the question remains: Is it applicable to our population? As reported on Pfizer’s official site, 150 Clinical Trials were conducted in 6 countries, which comprises the United States, Germany, South Africa, Turkey, Argentina and Brazil. Among this trial, 40 percent were of diverse races and out of which,5 percent were of Asians. 

About few days later, Moderna came up with a vaccine with the same efficacy as Pfizer's in Clinical Trial Phase III, but similar to Pfizer’s, the same issue was with the sample representation. The trial was based on the population of the United States, with few or no Asian participants.

After a few more weeks, University of Oxford came up with a vaccine of 90 percent efficacy on Clinical Trial Phase II/III. The trial consisted of 95 percent white and the remainder of different races. Later on, the vaccine was then proceeded again for Clinical Trial due to some errors within previous trials, and currently, the results are still in pending.

China has collaborated with other countries, including Pakistan, UAE and even, Saudi Arabia, to run Clinical trials for their vaccines. 

About a few weeks back, Saudi Arabia has just started Clinical Trials for vaccination and allowed free vaccination for their inhabitants. And recently, UAE has approved China’s Sinopharma vaccine with 86 percent efficacy, among Emirati population. It needs further process before it is applied to their population.

If we talk about Pakistan, especially in Karachi, hospitals, including Indus Hospital and Aga Khan University Hospital are running Clinical Trials for about an year to test the validation of Chinese vaccines. Furthermore, as from news updates, In fact, Pakistan has decided to contact the World Bank for $153 million to purchase COVID-19 vaccines.
And moreover, it has been reported that vaccination drives for COVID-19 will take place from April, 2021, in Pakistan.

This article is not about flaws of vaccines. Pfizer’s vaccines have been approved and further, approved by FDA, but based on their population. What we need is to run Clinical Trials for their vaccines for further approval to be used in our population.

Written by Mohammad Irtaza Tafheem

Content Writer and a Researcher