Breaking News: A second Indian vaccine against Covid-19 Wuhan virus is seeking emergency Use authorization in India

 

The Ahmedabad based Zydus Cadilla's vaccine (ZyCoV-D) is the second indigenous vaccine against Covid-19 Wuhan virus. The company will be seeing emergency authorization in India soon. The Phase 3 study had more than 28,000 volunteers.


ZyCoV-D will be the world's first DNA Plasmid-based vaccine. Another feature of this vaccine is that it is administered without using a needle but via skin. It requires 3 doses for complete effectiveness.

More here:
COVID-19 Vaccine: Zydus Cadila to seek emergency authorization for ZyCoV-D vaccine next week (jagranjosh.com)

India is presently administering Covaxin, Covishied and Sputnik V. Pfizer and Moderna are also likely to enter the picture soon.

Politics and economics of vaccine distribution

 There is a lot of politics and economics involved in the distribution of the Covid vaccine. Based on the availability of the vaccine, the future looks dismal for the have-nots. They say it takes 11 years for Africa to reach herd immunity. 

Africans suffering for 11 years is a blot on our collective shared feeling. We really should be ashamed. The quick answer is to remove barriers to producing vaccines based on politics. 

It remains for the future to determine how many lives would have been saved in India if Biden had not put restrictions on vaccine raw materials; if China had given full cooperation to the WHO fact finding team, and all religions for not cooperating with congregations and defying social distancing, and for political rallies (Trump, Modi, etc.), and activism groups for their agenda (BLM, etc.). They did not give a damn for the Covid virus's virulence.

Here is some nice summarizing of the vaccine path for India and Vaccine economics.

I feel good reading this news

 The rash I observed after the first dose of Moderna seems to indicate the vaccine is actually working.

‘COVID Arm’ Rash After Vaccine Is Actually Proof It’s Working, Doctors Say (msn.com)

Delayed Large Local Reactions to mRNA-1273 Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 | NEJM

Source: Delayed Large Local Reactions to mRNA-1273 Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 | NEJM

This picture had a title. It is reproduced here:

"Shown are morphologic characteristics of delayed cutaneous reactions to mRNA-1273 vaccine, including annular plaques (in Patient 1), uniformly edematous plaques (in Patients 2, 6, and 11), and targetoid plaques (in Patient 3) near the site of vaccination. In several patients, there was considerable induration of the plaques (e.g., in Patients 8 and 9). In addition to a localized rash on the arm, two patients had other cutaneous symptoms, including papules on the palm and fingers (Patient 5) and urticarial plaques on the elbows (Patient 6). Patients 1, 5, 8, 9, 11, and 12 did not have a recurrence of large local reactions with the second dose, although some patients had minimal erythema. In Patients 2, 6, and 7, the reactions had an earlier onset and were lower grade after the second dose than after the first dose. In Patients 3, 4, and 10, the onset of the reactions after the second dose was earlier than after the first dose, but the reactions to the two doses were of a similar grade. Some photographs were taken by the patients using a mirror, so the images of the left and right arms may be transposed."

More here:

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2102131?query=featured_coronavirus

Breaking News: Novavax trials in India

 

Trump administration backed the NOVAVAX vaccine as one of the six vaccines in Operation Warp Speed. Operation Warp Speed provided $1.75B funding for this company. 

Novavax has matured and it is being tested in a trial in the US and Mexico with about 16,000 to 30,000 participants. Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have already been used in millions of vaccinations in the USA. The AstraZeneca vaccine has also been used in vaccinating millions in the UK and elsewhere. AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institue in India has been shipped to many countries under a UN program.

Performance-wise, Novavax has 95.6% efficacy against the original strain, a reduced 85.6% against the UK variant but much less % efficiency (49.4%) against the South African variant.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/novavax-covid-vaccine-highly-effective-but-not-against-south-africa-variant-2359680

Serum Institute in India will be producing the Novavax vaccine.

The Novavax as well as the Nasally delivered Bharath Biotech's weakened virus has approval for clinical testing.

https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/more-covid-19-vaccine-candidates-get-approval-for-clinical-trials-in-india-121020502044_1.html

Watch this Video:

A note on COVID-19 variants, old and new

  A number of COVID-19 variants have appeared, first time in many parts of the world but seems to be spreading to other countries. Increased travel and relaxing will only promote spreading virus variants and controlling the virus spread will be difficult. 

Here is an image of collated information from various sources (obviously incomplete) across the Internet.

 

Here is a list of variants identified by MAKO laboratories.

Here are some links that you may be interested in (the titles are in bold):

 

Covid-19: The E484K mutation and the risks it poses

https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n359

Covid-19: Novavax vaccine efficacy is 86% against UK variant and 60% against South African variant

https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n296

Scientists In US' Oregon Find B.1.1.7 Variant With 'E484K', Mutation Also Found In India

https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/rest-of-the-world-news/scientists-in-us-oregon-find-b-dot-11-dot-7-variant-with-e484k-mutation-also-found-in-india.html

Another New Coronavirus Variant Now Detected In 13 Countries (B.1.125)

https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/global-event-news/another-new-coronavirus-variant-now-detected-in-13-countries.html

There is also a new variant from India, the Indian variant:

The Indian variant is given the designationB.1.617 which has two mutations, E$*$Q and L452R

https://www.firstcoastnews.com/video/news/local/double-mutant-covid-19-variant-first-discovered-in-india-now-found-in-the-us/77-176b256f-35df-4931-923a-0fb5cd527678?jwsource=cl

More here:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/indian-covid-19-variant-found-in-u-s-across-globe-as-foreign-help-arrives-11619545081

One has to be careful as this variant according to Indian scientists evade immune response:

https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indian-scientists-flag-virus-mutations-that-could-evade-immune-response-2021-05-01/

Hawaii (Oahu) Tier-based COVID-19 restriction has been updated.

 The COVID_19 restrictions and relaxations are tier-based.  Beginning Feb15,2021 Oahu is in Tier 3. Tier 1 is the most restrictive and Tier 4 is the highly relaxed.

Here is the latest update from the health department.

Since the situation regarding COVID-19 infections have gotten better, the restrictions have been relaxed and since February 15, Oahu is in Tier 3.

There are what you can do or not under the Tier system.

Operation Warp Speed: Light at the end of tunnel at last

Operation warp Speed has yielded results that will finally control this pandemic. Pfizer and Moderna, two of the 5 companies in the operation have yielded unbelievably excellent results. President Trump foresaw that the vaccines will be available by the end of the year, and they promptly did. Nay Sayers did voice their disbelief that it can be done in such a short time. 

He did appoint the most suitable candidate for heading the operation. Dr. Saloui Moncef was announced by President Trump in May 2020 to manage the development of vaccine. He could not have chosen anyone better. Well, President Trump did respect science in choosing him whatever may be his personal view of the virus/infection.

At last, there is hope for the end of this pandemic, thanks to the foresight of Operation Warp Speed team.

Here are some screen shots from a CNBC interview aired today.

Storage temperature may be a challenge for some COVID-19 Vaccines

The vaccines developed by Moderna Inc. and BioNTech & Pfizer have this storage temperatures.

1. *Moderna's             mRNA-1273                               requires -4 deg F
2. BioNTech's             BN1162b2 and BNT162b2         requires -94 deg F

This could be a problem in some scenarios although successful in one-day vaccination event site.

Read more here:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/moderna-and-pfizers-covid-19-vaccine-candidates-require-ultra-low-temperatures-raising-questions-about-storage-distribution-2020-08-27

Trick of the vaccine is in the pricing

No vaccine has proved to be the most effective so far, but the battle has begun.

Vaccine, at what price?

Her is something I saw on Bloomberg tv recently:

Indian Serum Institute, the world's largest bulk producer of the vaccine (Oxford Vaccine) will be producing it and distributing it at a very reasonable price. Thank Bill Gates and Melinda Foundation!

It is about $3/dose. Moderna appears too expensive for developing countries. 

COVID-19 vaccines in Phase III trial

The following are the vaccines in Phase III testing phase

Moderna with National Institutes of Health USA

Launched Phase III on July 27,2020
US Government support `1 billion US$

BioNTech with Pfizer (NY) and Fosun Pharma(China)
Launched July 27 Phase III with 30,000 volunteers from 4 countries

US government offered $1.9 billion for 100 million doses


AstraZeneca with Oxford University

In Phase III trials in the UK, Brazil and South Africa

Wuhan Institute of Biological Products C0., LTD

Sinopharm launched Phase II trials in July in UAE
15,000 people participating

Sinovac, China
Phase III in Brazil in July

Murdoch Children's Research Institute
Testing the Tuberculosis vaccine in Phase III

Source of this post:  https://tinyurl.com/y9qjt4re

Covid-19 Vaccine Developer line up 2020-2021

These are the major companies and the research entities that are hopeful of developing a vaccine. The timeline for delivering a solution is in 2020 - 2021 as of now. Who will make it to the finish line?

The table is copied from Nippon Keizai Shinbun. The last column is my addition for my English audience.

Hopefully, we can get past this universal bug.

Covid-19 Vaccine Hopefuls

Here is a list of vaccine hopefuls to combat the new coronavirus Covid-19.

https://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/20/05/16056298/these-6-coronavirus-vaccine-candidates-are-the-likeliest-to-succeed-says-morgan-sta

According to BGR, a leading online destination for news and commentary focused on the mobile and consumer electronics markets, these are the companies/institutions that are further in bringing in a vaccine for the coronavirus.

According to Fauci, the new coronavirus is not addressed by a vaccine that can provide lifetime immunity and, at best it can provide immunity up to 12 months. It appears to change with time just like the cold virus. He notes with optimism that 100s of millions of doses may be available by 2021.

https://bgr.com/2020/06/03/fauci-vaccine-comments-coronavirus-immunity-length/