Page 40 - April-May 2020 Neat

40 COVID-19 Vaccine Could Take Months

Why a COVID-19 vaccine

could take much longer

than 12 to 18 months

by Nicole Bogart

TORONTO -- As Canadians mark their seventh
week of living amidst a pandemic, many have
placed their optimism in the unprecedented
global efforts to develop a vaccine for COVID-
19.

Drug companies and scientists all over the world
are actively engaged in this call to arms, with at
least five candidate vaccines in clinical
evaluation and another 71 in clinical preclinical
evaluation, according to the World Health
Organization (WHO).

With governments, research bodies and
philanthropists throwing billions of dollars at
vaccine development, experts have estimated
that a COVID-19 vaccine could be ready in 12
to 18 months.

But, experts warn that much may still stand in
the way of delivering a successful vaccine it's usually put into healthy people. The standard Beyond testing, the prospect of manufacturing
candidate to billions of people worldwide. is much higher than it would be for a therapeutic billions of vaccines remains a sticking point for
drug that's trying to treat something where experts.
“You've got an international collaboration that is you're already sick.”
very different than anything we've seen before, “The volume of vaccine that needs to be made is
so the timeframe for finding a vaccine seems Vaccines require preclinical testing in animals unprecedented, if everyone has to have it, which
reasonable,” Alison Thompson, associate and three phases of clinical trial evaluations in is another question,” Natasha Crowcroft, chief
professor at the University of Toronto’s Leslie humans before completion. The first stages of of applied immunization research and evaluation
Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, told CTVNews.ca by the earliest COVID-19 trials aren’t due for at Public Health Ontario, told CTVNews.ca by
phone. completion until the fall or later, but several phone.
have already begun clinical trials.
“What slows it down and is really how much Crowcroft says the federal government has
safety testing you want to do.” Some teams are clearing hurdles faster than made substantial investments in vaccine
others. Scientists at Oxford University, for research, bolstering our ability to produce a
When considering the economic and mental example, are moving forward with a clinical vaccine locally when it becomes available. That
health repercussions of the coronavirus trial that will involve nearly 6,000 people, funding includes $23 million to support pre-
pandemic, 18 months might sound like a long testing a new variation of a vaccine that has clinical testing and clinical trials of a potential
time. But in the world of vaccinations, it’s akin proven safe in humans previously. COVID-19 vaccine in Canada and $29 million
to a blink. for the production of vaccines.
The Oxford team says that with emergency
The mumps vaccine, largely considered to be the approval from regulators, large-scale But if a large percentage of the global
fastest ever approved, took four years to become manufacturing could be carried out while the population requires inoculations, we’ll have to
widely available, from development to licensing clinical trial is ongoing, allowing them to get creative.
of a drug in 1967. develop a million doses of the vaccine by
September. Crowcroft notes there have been some
Thompson notes that rushing a vaccine has had suggestions of retooling industries that are in
deadly repercussions in the past. But scientists note we must remain cautious trouble now and trying to see how they can help
when mapping out a timeline. with vaccine manufacturing. But several
In 1976, the U.S. government rushed to develop questions remain, including impacts on the
a swine flu vaccination over fears of the next big “The best-case scenario is that by the autumn of production of other drugs and vaccines.
pandemic. The immunization program was 2020 we could have an efficacy result from the
halted after 10 weeks due to reports that the phase III trial to show that the vaccine protects “We have a real issue right now with the whole
vaccination increased the risk for Guillain-Barre against the virus, alongside the ability to childhood immunization program is grinding to
syndrome, a rare form of paralysis that starts in manufacture large amounts of the vaccine,” the a halt because of COVID-19,” she said.
the feet and creeps up the body. Oxford team noted in early April, noting the
ability to determine the vaccine’s efficacy will “Kids who are not badly affected by COVID-19
More than 450 people developed Guillain-Barre rely heavily on transmissions within the local are then at risk of getting all these other
syndrome after receiving the vaccine; 25 died. population over the summer. principal diseases that they are at risk of.”

“We could rush something to market really “But these best-case timeframes are highly She notes health officials will also have to weigh
quickly and have a repeat of the swine flu ambitious and subject to change.” the repercussions of limiting the production of
vaccine debacle, where the vaccine killed more seasonal flu vaccines in favour of the COVID-
people than the virus,” Thompson said. ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ VOLUMES OF 19 vaccine.
VACCINES TO BE MADE
“Part of the safety concern is that the risk- (Continued on Page 41)
benefit ratio is different for a vaccine because