Coronavirus vaccine update: From Oxford to Moderna, we can expect important vaccine updates on October 22

After months of aggressive development, big pharma companies and vaccine makers will be releasing safety data from top vaccine contenders on October 22. We can expect data from companies including Moderna, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer.

Meanwhile, groups like Bharat Biotech, Sinopharm and Russia's Gameleya Institute are also working on rolling out vaccines for the masses in the quickest timeframe possible. Here's a weekly update of all the COVID-19 vaccines being developed right now.

Pune-based Serum Institute of India has signed pact with a third vaccine company to test and deliver their vaccine candidate. After Novavax, Oxford-Astrazence (Covishield), the vaccine maker has joined hands with Bharat Biotech (the maker of Covaxin) to conduct phase III clinical trials of their novel nasal vaccine, which experts term to be a safer and easier project to work on than traditional vaccines. The promising news was announced by Union Health Minister, Harsh Vardhan, adding that the trials could see volunteering from tens of thousands of people.

While Bharat Biotech recently announced plans to use medical prowess of an American-based company, it will be the first time that an intranasal vaccine would be tested on such large scale. Although no dates or trial plans have been announced apart from this, reports suggest that nasal vaccines could be made available by mid-half of next year.

Oxford AstraZeneca backed ADZ-1222 vaccine remains to be one of the most looked after vaccine under trials right now, with many countries having expressed interest in reserving doses for their population. According to the most recent reports, the US government is looking to procure a deal to reserve major doses of the vaccine, which is in phase III study globally.

Meanwhile, Oxford vaccine, which is in critical stages of trials in India might see the light of the day in the first quarter of 2021. According to Dr Suresh Jadhav, Serum Institute Chairperson, earliest doses of the vaccine could be rolled out by December and start inoculating sections of India by March, if regulatory approvals are met on a timely basis. The company has also commented on pricing the vaccine dose 'Covishield' economically and keeping hundreds of millions of doses ready, once things are streamlined.

Oxford University has already released peer-reviewed data from phase I/II study in July, which proved that the vaccine was able to deliver tolerable immunity and spike up antibody count. More studies, to be released in coming weeks will talk about largescale safety and efficacy rates.

Russia's approach on COVID vaccines has been embroiled by controversies ever since the first vaccine was rolled out, after limited testing. While Russian authorities prep to conduct mid-scale trials and production in India in the coming months (which has been given the regulatory nod by the DCCI), another Russian vaccine, developed by the Siberian Vector Institute has been given the go-ahead for distribution, just weeks after trials were commenced. The vaccine has been named EpiVacCorona and authorities are looking forward to conducting late scale trials in Russia and abroad. There are also avid talks of a third Russian vaccine under development being launched soon. However, none of these has been peer-reviewed or tested for safety as of yet, which pegs them a little below other prominent vaccine candidates.

Small-scale studies have been able to prove that Sputnik V, the one under testing in India was able to spike immunity for a year's time period. More widespread studies will be needed to confirm the same.

China, the maker of at least five COVID vaccines is seeing rampant development and emergency use authorisation being granted across cities for the usage of vaccines. While two of the vaccines under testing have already been distributed to sections of society, such as emergency workers and high-risk candidates, another one of the vaccines, BBIBP-CorV, which is undergoing a combined phase I/II testing right now is able to trigger expected antibody response. Results of the same have been published in the scientific journal, The Lancet. However, total potency and durability of the vaccine in fighting novel coronavirus is yet to be derived.

China, much like other vaccine groups is in talks with other countries to distribute and deliver their vaccines. While the vaccine doses are being marked at a slightly higher rate than other injectables, the mass production could ensure that a Chinese COVID vaccine reaches the masses before others.

Moderna, another prominent vaccine candidate, which is in the middle of phase III testing is expected to release safety data from its clinical trials, which will primarily determine how safe and dependable the company's novel mRNA vaccine would be in fighting the pandemic. The company, which received huge funding as part of the US government's special WarpSpeed program is facing pressure to roll out doses in the next two months.

While not a lot of other details about the vaccine have been released for the public yet, it is being said that the one-of-kind mRNA technology being used to make the vaccine is "safe" and has fewer chances of spiking extreme side-effects.

American pharma giant Pfizer Inc.'s COVID vaccine, developed with German medical maker, BioNTech has raised hopes to have a vaccine ready for the American public by the month of Novemeber if emergency authorisation is granted in time. The company is looking forward to releasing safety data from its trial which involved 44,000 people. However, there's still no surety when the vaccine would be actually available, in large doses, even if urgent authorisation is granted. Pfizer's pricing policy, making it one of the costliest ones right now ($20-$30) could also affect distribution.

Apart from this, the production and administration problems with the vaccine, since Pfizer's make would require the use of cold-storage facilities, could also hinder wide-scale delivery and access.

Johnson and Johnson, which is working on testing out a version of COVID vaccine made out of an adenovirus vector base hit a pause last week, after one of the volunteers in the study developed complications after reporting "mysterious" illness. This makes the vaccine group the second one after Oxford University to experience side-effects in early-stage trials.

Following the safety pause, the company halted the enrolment process for phase III trials, which had 60,000 volunteers taking part. While the company hasn't released any other information yet, the recent pause has been termed as routine and ordinary, adding that these "adverse" side-effects do not require a lot of worries at this stage.