COVID-19: Vaccine/antidote and testing procedures Megathread [Mod Warning - Post #1]

Heath Panicky Whirlpool wrote: »

Given its importance and I'd guess it has the best minds developing it as number one priority, how can it take so long? Genuinely curious, I know it needs human trials. Interested to see what the steps involved and the usual delays etc.

So when a drug is developed, it is tested first in very small numbers, usually in healthy male volunteers in phase 1 trials. These initial tests will gather some information on whether it works but but are more about checking if it is tolerated i.e. no immediately noticable side effects. Then you test in larger groups and various doses as the trial goes on - some at the eventual dosage level but also higher and lower to figure out how the drug responds to the body and the body to the drug. All the time you are gathering and analysing data to see if you have a good enough response and low enough side effects to continue.
So imagine you are doing this but also have to test for every age group l, pregnant women and women of childbearing age, that are usually excluded from clinical trials. Also even if all well, it works and is safe you then need to grow enough vaccine to distribute to the whole world. Flu vaccine can grow in chicken eggs but coronavirus vaccine can't so the process is not in place to quickly get that up and running like if it was a variant of the seasonal flu.
I'm by no means an expert but those are a few of the reasons why it takes a while.

Maestro85 wrote: »

Thoughts on this.

https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=229893

American friend of mine told me today that this is going to be the new Hail Mary pass that will be talked about in the US like chloroquine.

TLDR: Anti-Parasite Drug Ivermectin Stunts COVID-19 Virus Culture in Lab Study

Ivermectin (for head lice) possible cure

No, as I don't believe there will be one until at least October 2021

The first months of it will probably be just for over65s.

Still waters wrote: »

What would you base that on

Work in Pharma
Any drug I've been involved in has at least 9 years development before it went to market
With a rush job and corners cut maybe they could have one in 18 months.
In reality I think it will he 5 years

I thought it might be useful to have a thread where we could track vaccine development. It's going to take a long time to complete trials and manufacture billions of doses, but at least when we know one works we'll also know the end of all this will be in sight.

I'd ask those of you who are sceptical of vaccines, or believe we'll never have a vaccine, to please leave this thread alone - there's lots more places for your views.

To get started, here's a great overview of where vaccines are currently at, who's making them, who they have partnered with, where they are along the clinical trial path:
https://www.biocentury.com/article/305091

Scott Gottlieb has been one of the most accurate commentators throughout this crisis. He thinks the US will have a few million doses ready by Autumn, which could be used in an emergency.

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/pfizer-biontech-dose-first-u-s-subject-covid-19-vaccine

Pfizer and BioNTech have begun dosing participants in a U.S. clinical trial of their COVID-19 vaccine candidates. The dose-escalation stage of the trial will enroll up to 360 subjects, initially out of sites in New York and Maryland.

The U.S. clinical trial is studying four variants of the vaccine, code-named a1, b1, b2 and c2, to quickly determine which combination of mRNA format and target antigen holds the most promise. Pfizer and BioNTech are assessing candidates that contain uridine-containing mRNA, nucleoside-modified mRNA or self-amplifying mRNA.