Coronavirus vaccine could take a year, say UAE experts

Dubai: A vaccine to combat coronavirus - which has so far affected 100,000 globally with over 3,000 fatalities - won’t be available until the end of the year say virologists.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a global alliance financing and coordinating the development of vaccines against emerging infectious diseases, has pledged US$2 billion towards research and development of a Covid 19 vaccine.

Of nine pharmaceutical companies racing towards creating a vaccine, some have announced the first phase of clinical trials as early as the beginning of April, but considering the long process of trials, approvals and mass production it’s going to take time for the vaccine to reach people globally.

DJ Hamblin Brown a UK-based doctor who was running his own clinic in Beijing before returning to the UK, said, “The vaccine will take least a year - probably nearer 18 months - and possibly never. I am not a virologist, but I understand that the coronavirus vaccines are not straightforward.”

Dr Brown further added that the virus was most likely here to stay in the community and could become endemic given its virulent contagiousness.

According to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), within a month of the viral outbreak by January 10, Chinese scientists put out the genomic sequence of the virus from the earliest samples in the public domain, and since then they have also sequenced nearly two dozen mutations as the virus evolves, which is a record according to global virologists.

Dr Sundar Elayaperumal, Specialist Microbiologist from Burjeel Hospital and also a member of the American Society of Microbiology said, “There are two types of coronavirus, human and zoonotic (transmitted through animals). These viruses are typically spherical in shape with sharp spikes or protrusions. These spikes latch onto human cells, then undergo a structural change that allows the viral membrane to fuse with the cell membrane. The viral genes can then enter the host cell to be copied, producing more viruses. The virus also is given to frequent mutations. Frequent mutations can happen during viral divisions.

“The processes involved after the scientists provided the genomic sequence was to grow the virus in the laboratory in a cell or tissue culture. This genome of virus is then inserted into an organism (bacteria or Yeast through recombinant technology) and the vaccine is made.”

“When an organism’s immune system encounters a foreign molecule (typically a protein) for the first time, an antibody is produced. An antigen is defined as a substance that binds to specific antibodies in our bodies, which in the human body are used to find and neutralise any potentially harmful foreign substances in the bloodstream,” added Elayaperumal.

Dr Kavita Diddi, specialist microbiologist at Prime Hospital said, “As per the guidelines of the Centre for Disease Control there are various stages involved in the development of the vaccine. The vaccine needs to be tested for short term and long term impact on the human immune system. Short term could be six months and long term could be 1-2 years. Only after that can the vaccine be sent for FDA approvals and be mass produced.”