Ounce of prevention

11 August 2020 By Robert Cyran, Aimee Donnellan Follow @rob_cyran

Drugmakers like AstraZeneca and Pfizer may soon get regulators’ blessing for coronavirus inoculations. Yet doubts will linger over the treatments’ efficacy and profitability, and manufacturing delays mean poor countries will have to wait. Breakingviews explains why.

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Drugmakers including Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca are conducting final trials for potential Covid-19 vaccines.

Pfizer, which is working with German biotech company BioNTech, expects to have results and submit its treatment to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval by October.

AstraZeneca, which is developing a drug with the University of Oxford, hopes its vaccine could be in use by the end of the year.

Moderna has said it hopes to enroll 30,000 people for its so-called phase 3 trial by September.

Russia on Aug. 11 said it had approved a candidate vaccine, even though the treatment has not yet completed its phase 3 trials. President Vladimir Putin said on state television that the country would soon start mass-producing the drug.

Other companies working on remedies for Covid-19 include Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi. There are currently 165 potential vaccine candidates in clinical and pre-clinical development, according to the World Health Organization.

Context News

Drugmakers including Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca are conducting final trials for potential Covid-19 vaccines.

Pfizer, which is working with German biotech company BioNTech, expects to have results and submit its treatment to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval by October.

AstraZeneca, which is developing a drug with the University of Oxford, hopes its vaccine could be in use by the end of the year.

Moderna has said it hopes to enroll 30,000 people for its so-called phase 3 trial by September.

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