WHO Says 70 potential vaccines against coronavirus under development

The pharma industry is hoping to compress the time it takes to get a vaccine to market.

coronavirus vaccine progress:

There are 70 coronavirus vaccines in development globally, with three candidates already being tested in human trials, according to the World Health Organization, as drugmakers race to find a cure for the deadly pathogen.

China has started clinical trials on two potential COVID-19 vaccines, the country's official state-run press agency reported citing the State Council joint coronavirus prevention and control mechanism.

The experimental vaccines were created by teams at the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, which is associated with the state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group, and Sinovac Research and Development Co., Ltd, which is based in the Chinese capital of Beijing. And both trials have started.

China, which is developing a vaccine for the deadly coronavirus, plans to conduct additional trials in other countries seriously hit by the pandemic if the ongoing trial in the country's virus epicentre Wuhan proves it is safe and effective, a Chinese researcher said.

According to a WHO document:

On 31 December 2019, WHO was informed of a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China. Chinese authorities identified the SARS-CoV-2 as the causative virus on 7 January 2020, and the disease was named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by WHO on 11 February 2020. As part of WHO’s response to the outbreak, a Research and Development (R&D) Blueprint has been activated to accelerate the development of diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics for this novel coronavirus.

Under WHO’s coordination, a group of experts are assigned towards the development of vaccines against COVID19.