covid-19: why is the race to a vaccine taking so long?

as covid-19 cases continue, researchers around the world are racing to understand the virus, develop treatments to help those who are infected and produce a vaccine to protect others. as of march 2020, there were 20 vaccines in development for covid-19 .

the process

experts are saying developing a vaccine will take 12 to 18 months. why does it take so long?

generally,  vaccine development requires a multi-stage approach. it begins with a clinical research phase, which can include animal and some human testing, as well as four phases of testing, which can range from several months for phase one to several months to years for each subsequent phase. a typical vaccine development process lasts ten to 15 years, according to the history of vaccines, and an average of 7.6 years to go from phase one to launch. health authorities, as well as some vaccine researchers, have said that the vaccine for the coronavirus could be available in 12 to 15 months

how close are we?

what’s happening in canada?

in canada, medicago has produced the virus-like particle in covid-19, an essential first step in creating a vaccine. the company works with plant-based treatments to target virus contamination and limit its mutation. human trials are expected in july or august. the firm aims to have a development program submitted to health authorities by november 2021.

the vaccine and infectious disease organization-international vaccine centre at the university of saskatchewan recently received $23 million in federal funding and reports it is close to developing a working version of the vaccine that will undergo early human trials. western university’s imaging pathogens for knowledge translation facility, or impakt, is also working on a covid-19 vaccine. and  entos pharmaceuticals , a biotech firm based in alberta, is aiming to develop a dna vaccine in the coming weeks so it can begin trials.

“it is worth noting that our track record with vaccine development in other coronaviruses isn’t great,” says dr. charles weijer , a bioethicist and professor of philosophy and medicine at western university and an advisor to the who expert group on human challenge studies and covid-19. “we have no vaccine for sars or mers and, of course, we have no vaccine for the common cold.”

one reality scientists will have to face is the mutation of the virus. “whenever you’re dealing with a new virus, you don’t know how it’s going to mutate,” says dr. ian culbert, executive director of the canadian public health association. researchers recently released a study of records from the u.s., china, spain, brazil, australia, finland, india, italy, nepal, south korea, and sweden. they found that one sample collected in india on january 27, 2020 showed the “first evidence” of a “significant” mutation of sars-cov-2.

finding a vaccine is one thing — but ramping up production is another. “mass production takes time,” says culbert. and building manufacturing capacity requires hundreds of millions of dollars, according to recent research n the new england journal of medicine .

manufacturers  of vaccines are often headquartered in developing countries and must meet the standards of different regulatory agencies using different release criteria and requiring different testing methods for release in their specific jurisdiction. however, complexities in manufacturing lead to occasional disruption of supply caused by batch or production failures, quality control issues with bulk or finished products, a breakdown of the cold-chain in delivery, and a failure to predict variations in demand, according to a 2011 study in the lancet.

human challenge studies are trials in which participants are injected with an infectious disease organism. these trials have the ability to speed up testing and the rollout of a covid-19 vaccine by many months, according to new research . but they aren’t risk-free. “this is controversial because there is a risk of death and there is no proven drug treatment for the disease,” says weijer. he says researchers are now weighing whether to do these tests on young people who are otherwise healthy, and therefore at low risk of complications or deaths.

in canada, immunization programming is a shared responsibility between federal, provincial and territorial governments, with provincial and territorial governments and local public health authorities undertaking the planning and delivery of immunization programming. the national advisory committee on immunization , naci, has been developing recommendations for the use of vaccines for canadians since the 1960s. naci works in parallel with the committee to advise on tropical medicine and travel (catmat) which guides the public health agency of canada on travel-related health hazards including vaccine preventable diseases. phac regularly publishes advice from naci and catmat as statements about new vaccines and, as new evidence and indications emerge, updates recommendations for the use of vaccines that are available in canada. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/canadian-immunization-guide/introduction.html

  once a vaccine is ready, high-risk groups will be prioritized. “we have a roadmap which was developed during the h1n1 pandemic,” says culbert. because vaccine supplies will likely be low when the vaccine is first rolled out, healthcare authorities will use a risk algorithm that will prioritize those people who are at highest risk of covid-19.