There are many talks about the coronavirus vaccine. Today we would like to describe all the stages that new vaccines must go through.
Vaccines are rigorously tested and proven safe before it could be launched into the market. In the European Union, vaccines are controlled by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Before the vaccine could be launched, the substance has to undergo rigorous testing by its developer and the scientific evaluation by regulatory authorities. After those tests, the vaccine should be developed with laboratory testing and clinical testing. The whole process usually takes years, but in the case with COVID-19 the quick, rolling review cycle has been used to get the vaccine launched as soon as possible.
After the vaccine has been proved substantially acceptable, there comes clinical testing which is called vaccine trial. The zero phase is about the process when the little amount of the developed drug is inserted into 10 to 15 volunteers’ bodies to see what changes the drug provokes in the human. In the first stage, the right amount of the vaccine given to the person has to be found due to the testing on volunteers. The second phase includes several hundred volunteers that include individuals from the risk group and persons with chronic diseases. The third phase is the last one and there are already thousands to tens of thousands of persons being tested. The rare side effects appear in this stage.
At this moment, the Covid vaccine is developed in the USA, Germany and Russia. The German vaccine has been proved as more than 90 per cent effective in the aforementioned 3rd phase of the clinical trial, the USA’s looks to protect to 94,5% and Russian vaccine is suggested to be 92% effective. According to the WHO, more than 150 other Covid vaccines are in development. European Union has approved four contracts with pharmaceutical companies, which provide millions of the vaccine doses to EU member states, once the vaccine has been finally proven effective against COVID-19.
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