It is known that the goal of vaccine developers is to mimic a natural infection as closely as possible without getting a healthy individual sick.
The
COVID-19 vaccines essentially aim to
instruct the immune system to mount a defense, which is sometimes stronger than
what would be provided through natural infection and comes with fewer health
consequences.
Here are the
available vaccines:
Pfizer
1- One of the
world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, based in New York, in collaboration
with German biotech company BioNTech.
2- A
nucleic-acid vaccine that requires two doses taken 21 days apart.
3- On
December 2, the U.K. became the first Western country to approve any COVID-19
vaccine when it authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech candidate making the drug the
first mRNA vaccine in history allowed for human use.
The vaccine
has also been granted emergency approval in Canada, the European Union, and
other countries.
4- On
December 10, the New England Journal of Medicine published the results of
Pfizer’s phase three study, showing the vaccine was safe and 95-percent
effective in protecting against COVID-19 in people 16 and older. The FDA has
also published an analysis saying that the Pfizer vaccine is safe and offers
strong protection against COVID-19 within 10 days of the first dose, regardless
of the recipient’s race, weight, or age.
Price: $23 per dose
Johnson & Johnson
1- One of the
world’s largest multinational corporations, based in New Jersey, specializing
in healthcare and pharmaceutical products.
2- A
single-dose vector vaccine.
3- Approved
for use in the U.S., Bahrain, Canada, and the European Union.
4- On
February 24, an FDA analysis confirmed Johnson & Johnson’s earlier report
that its vaccine is safe and effective in preventing COVID-19. The report found
the vaccine is 72-percent effective in preventing COVID-19 based on U.S.
trials, and 85-percent effective in preventing severe disease across all
regions.
Price: $10 a dose
Read more: What to do before vaccination and what to expect after vaccination
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Read more: 6 reasons why you shouldn't worry about COVID-19 vaccines
Moderna
1- A
Massachusetts-based biotech company, in collaboration with the National
Institutes of Health.
2- A
nucleic-acid vaccine that requires two doses.
3- On
December 18, the FDA granted emergency approval to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine,
a day after an advisory panel decided 20-0, with one abstention, that the
benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks, such as the mild side effects
reported in their clinical trial.
The vaccine has also been approved in the
European Union, Canada, the U.K., and Israel.
4- In December, an FDA analysis of the phase three study of Moderna’s vaccine confirmed that it is 94.1-percent effective in preventing mild cases of COVID-19 and 100-percent effective at preventing severe cases after taking two doses.
Price: $19.5 per dose
AstraZeneca
1- The U.K.
university, in collaboration with the biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.
2- A viral
vector vaccine that requires two doses.
3- Approved
for use in the United Kingdom, the European Union, Argentina, India, and other
countries.
4- On March 19, several European countries
said they would resume use of the AstraZeneca vaccine after EU regulators said
the jab does not increase the risk of blood clots. In recent weeks, 13 European
nations and a handful of other countries had announced that they would
temporarily halt their use of the vaccine due to the reports, even as the WHO
and the EU drug regulator recommended its continued use.
Price:
Read more: The reasons why you should worry about AstraZeneca vaccine
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Read more: COVID-19 vaccines profits in 2021
Sputnik V
1- A Russian
research institution, in partnership with the state-run Russian Direct
Investment Fund.
2- A viral
vector vaccine that uses two strains of adenovirus and requires a second
injection after 21 days to boost the immune response.
3- In August,
Russia cleared the Sputnik V vaccine for widespread use and claimed it as the
first registered COVID-19 vaccine on the market—before the vaccine’s phase
three trials had begun and despite the lack of published evidence at the time.
It has since been approved in Belarus,
Argentina, Venezuela, and other countries.
4- On
February 2, the medical journal The Lancetpublished the results of a phase
three trial in Moscow that found the Sputnik V vaccine is safe and 91.6-percent
effective in preventing COVID-19.
Price: $10 a dose
Sinopharm
1- China’s
state-run pharmaceutical company, in collaboration with the Wuhan Institute of
Biological Products.
2- Two
inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.
3- China has
approved one of the company’s vaccines for general use and another for limited
use. One of the Sinopharm vaccines has also been approved in Bahrain, the
United Arab Emirates, and other countries.
4- On
December 30, the company announced results of its phase three study showing one
of its vaccines to be 79-percent effective in preventing COVID-19.
UAE officials also claimed the vaccine is
100-percent effective in preventing moderate and severe cases of the disease.
Price:
Bharat
Biotech (COVAXIN)
1- An Indian
biotechnology company, in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical
Research and the National Institute of Virology.
2- An
inactivated vaccine, which requires two doses that are administered 28 days
apart.
3- Authorized
for emergency use in India.
Medicago
(CoVLP)
1- A Canadian
biotechnology company, in partnership with British multinational pharmaceutical
company GlaxoSmithKline.
2- A
plant-derived recombinant vaccine with an adjuvant that requires two doses
administered 21 days apart.
3- Not approved for use.
The
mRNA vaccine [Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna] seems to be highly effective, two
doses of that vaccine against this variant. The viral vector vaccines from
[Johnson & Johnson] and AstraZeneca also appear to be effective, about 60%
effective. The mRNA vaccines are about 88% effective. So we have the tools to
control this and defeat it. We just need to use those tools
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