The development of the corona vaccine is increasingly intense so it can be available as soon as possible to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic Among hundreds of candidates, the vaccine candidate developed by AstraZeneca is the vaccine that is considered the most advanced in terms of development.
This was revealed by the Chief Scientist of the World Health Organization ( WHO ) Soumya Swaminathan. Swaminathan said the candidate corona vaccine developed by Moderna was also not far behind Astrazeneca.
According to Swaminathan, of about 200 corona vaccine candidates, 15 of them have entered clinical trials. “WHO is in talks with several Chinese producers, including Sinovac about potential vaccines,” Swaminathan said as quoted by Reuters on Friday (6/26).
Swaminathan called for consider collaborating in a corona vaccine trial, similar to the ongoing WHO solidarity trials for drugs. “But I think AstraZeneca certainly has a more global scope right now in terms of where they conduct and plan their vaccine trials,” Swaminathan said.
The WHO-led coalition against the corona pandemic is asking for government and private sector assistance to help raise 31.3 billion US dollars in the next 12 months. The funds are for developing and providing tests, treatments, and vaccines for the disease.
A budget of 3.4 billion US dollars has been contributed to the coalition to date, so there is still a lack of funding of 27.9 billion US dollars. WHO is working with a large coalition of drug development, funding and distribution organizations under what it calls the ACT-Accelerator Hub.
This initiative is intended to develop and provide 500 million corona tests and 245 million new treatment programs for this disease to low and middle income countries by mid-2021. WHO also hopes that 2 billion doses of vaccine, including 1 billion that will be purchased by low and middle income countries, will be available by the end of 2021.