70 Coronavirus Vaccines In Development Globally, 3 Already In Human Trials

The World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed that 70 potential coronavirus vaccines are in the works globally, with three of them already being tested in human trials. On Saturday, Apr. 11, the WHO published a report showing the updated list of vaccine efforts around the world, including the names of companies pursuing shots that could work against the deadly pathogen.

Of all the COVID-19 vaccines in development today, the furthest along in the clinical process is the experimental vaccine by Hong Kong firm CanSino Biologics and the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, which is already in phase 2. The other two vaccines that are already in human trials are the shots developed separately by Inovio Pharmaceuticals and a research team in the U.S. Vaccines developed by pharmaceutical giants like Pfizer Inc. and Sanofi are still in the preclinical stages.

In March, CanSino announced the Chinese regulatory had already approved the human trials of their vaccine. Massacushetts-based Moderna also started their human trials in March, skipping the years of animal trials usually required in developing vaccines. Inovio, the third to get approval to start human trials, just started testing their vaccine to humans last week. It could take up to 18 months to determine whether their vaccines are safe and effective for human use.

Meanwhile, the WHO has noted that the highly infectious coronavirus looks unlikely to be eradicated through containment measures alone. Hence, the drug industry hopes to compress the time it takes to get a coronavirus vaccine to market—which is usually 10 to 15 years—to within a year.

According to the WHO, current research efforts involve a wide array of organizations, including nonprofit groups, academic institutions, biotech companies, and pharmaceutical giants. Big and small drug makers around the world have also jumped in to develop a vaccine against the virus. Studies being done by these organizations progress at record speed as the only means to stamp out the virus quickly is by drastically speeding up the timeline.

Since the disease broke out in early January, COVID-19 has infected more than 1.9 million people and killed more than 110,000 across the globe.