COVID-19 FIRST VACCINE APPROVED
WITH THE ANNOUNCEMENT THAT THE PFIZER VACCINE HAS BEEN APPROVED FOR USE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, SP LOOKS AT THE CURRENT STATE OF PLAY FOR OTHER VACCINES IN THE PIPELINE....
T
he news that the first COVID-19 vaccine for the UK, developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, has been given approval for use, brings to an end the ‘race’ that many
pharmaceutical companies have been taking part in for the last year.
Around the world, researchers have been testing 48 vaccines in clinical trials on humans, with another 140 or so preclinical vaccines under active investigation in animals according to World Health Organisation.
Until approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was granted by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), it had been thought
12 - SCOTTISH PHARMACIST
that the vaccine being developed by researchers at Oxford University, in conjunction with Astra Zeneca, was the front runner.
Concern expressed by professionals
While vaccines usually require years of research and testing before reaching patients, however, scientists had been racing to produce a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine as quickly as possible.
While the need for a vaccine had become increasingly urgent, with more than 40 million global cases and deaths showing no signs of abating, many healthcare professionals
contacted by SP stated that that, even if a vaccine was made available, they would be reluctant to take it, given the speed at which it has been produced.
Work on the chickenpox vaccination, for example, began in 1954, but the development of a live attenuated varicella vaccine didn’t occur until the 1970s in Japan and wasn’t licensed for use in the United States until March 1995.
When it comes to the flu vaccination, it took Thomas Francis Jr, MD and Jonas Salk, MD five years to develop the first inactivated influenza vaccine licensed for use in civilians.
Dr Salk was also involved in the development of the first polio vaccine: a vaccine, which was to prove calamitous. On 12 April 1955, Thomas Francis Jr, MD (a scientist with extensive experience with influenza vaccines) and his colleagues announced the results of the Salk poliovirus vaccine trial. The vaccine, they said, was 80-90 per cent effective against paralytic polio.
The United States government licensed Salk’s vaccine later the same day – 12 April 1955 – and there was immediate widespread use of the vaccine. Less than a month later, however, Leonard Scheele, MD, the US Surgeon General, suspended the
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