JAKARTA - German biotechnology company BioNTech and US drug maker Pfizer Inc have said they will soon begin a final stage study of a potential COVID-19 vaccine. This vaccine candidate may be at the forefront.
If the research is successful, the company could apply for a vaccine for regulatory approval in October. This move also strengthens the position of Pfizer, BioNTech and their potential vaccines in plans to supply up to one hundred million doses by the end of 2020 and 1.3 billion by the end of 2021.
Patients are each given two doses of the drug-making vaccine to help boost immunity. This means that the first hundred million doses will be given to 50 million people.
The study is expected to cover about 120 locations worldwide and could include up to 30,000 participants. This will cover areas that have been badly affected by COVID-19.
"The initiation of the Phase 2/3 trial is a major step forward in our progress towards providing a potential vaccine to help combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic," said Pfizer Vaccine Research and Development Head Kathrin Jansen.
The trials involved Pfizer's most promising vaccine candidate, which it called BNT162b2. Previous studies screened for other potential vaccines.
Pfizer already has an agreement to sell one hundred million doses of its vaccine to the US government and give it the option to buy 500 million more. A similar agreement was reached with the European Union.
More than 150 vaccines are being developed against COVID-19 which has claimed nearly 650,000 lives globally. This pandemic has also crippled the economy in a very bad way.
This vaccine uses chemical messenger RNA to mimic the surface of the coronavirus and teaches the immune system to recognize and neutralize it. Although this technology has been around for many years, no messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine has yet been approved.
Moderna Inc also launched an advanced trial with 30,000 participants on Monday, 27 July. Johnson & Johnson will begin clinical trials this week.
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