What do we know about the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines so far?
The ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) — caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection — has led to an unparalleled focus on developing preventive and therapeutic measures. Within a year of the pandemic’s onset, the world saw the approval of the first COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use. Scores more are being developed or are in late-phase clinical trials. A new paper published in the journal
Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews sums up what is known about these vaccines so far.
Many national and international research collaborations and drives have also come up as a result of the urgent need for vaccines to arrest or at least contain the spread of the virus. These are aimed at funding and coordinating various phases of vaccine development, as well as codifying and streamlining manufacturing processes and global distribution of the final vaccine. The money and efforts that have gone into such programs have reduced the standard timeline for vaccine production from 10-15 years to 12-18 months.