Coronavirus vaccine update: GSK develops "safe" booster shot to Clover entering human study phase, here is the complete round up of COVID-19 vaccine development

Coronavirus infection cases have crossed the 8-million-mark worldwide, even as a possible second wave of the pandemic worries experts. With a steep rise in cases in countries like India, Brazil and the United States, no vaccine has been deployed to battle the surge, even though developments are happening super fast.

According to WHO, over 130 independent vaccine groups are working to develop a vaccine to combat the pandemic. We bring you a recap of the latest developments happening globally:

Vaccine candidates produced by Oxford-Astrazeneca, US-based Moderna Inc as well as China's CanSino biotech are all set to proceed with the later trial stages of their vaccine prototypes, beginning July. While Oxford's AZD1222 vaccine was one of the earliest developed vaccines to undergo clinical trials, China ramped up work on at least five vaccines, out of which Sinovav, produced by CanSino BioTech has shown the safest and the most promising results, with experts ready to bring it into use.

Meanwhile, Moderna's novel mRNA vaccine is also being praised for its efficacy and safety. While clinical studies are still underway, the pharmaceutical giant is ramping up production if they get ready approvals.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), one of the world's biggest vaccine makers recently announced their foray into the global vaccine race with the development of their "adjuvant" vaccine which, unlike modern vaccine technologies makes use of traditional technology. Pre-clinical trials for the same have been completed and the company also said that they are getting ready to ramp up production of atleast a "billion" doses to meet the need.

In a statement, GSK also said that the company was in the race to make the best, and not neccessary the first vaccine to fight COVID-19. "We want to be best in class, and if others are a little faster I will congratulate them because they can take care of maybe the healthcare workers in selected countries, but the world needs billions of doses and we will contribute to this effort," said Thomas Breuer, the company's chief medical officer, also adding that adjuvant vaccines are safer and have longer efficacy rates than other vaccines, especially for people belonging to high-risk categories.

Apart from this, the company has also partnered with several biotech and pharmaceutical conglomerates to produce vaccines including the ones produced by the University of Queensland, Australia, Xiamen Innovax and Clover Biopharmaceuticals.

Clover Biopharmaceuticals, one of the leading medicine makers in the world announced the start of phase-1 testing of its innovative vaccine, COVID-19 S-Trimer sub-unit vaccine candidate (SCB-2019) on humans, which involves about 150 adults from healthy and high-risk categories. As per reports, the company, which is now the sixth Chinese firm to enter the vaccine race has dosed patients for the same by testing two different "boosters"- GSK's adjuvant technology and US-based Dynavax along with its homegrown vaccine shot.

The trials are currently underway in Perth, Australia, with the makers saying that initial safety reports were expected by the month of August. Even though we don't know when the vaccine will be available for public use, broader studies and research is expected to happen in the later months of 2020.

The Israel Institue of Biological Research, another competitor in the global vaccine race announced the completion of phase 1 of its innovative vaccine on rodents, with researchers hopeful of having a vaccine ready by the end of the year.

The vaccine, which works by neutralizing antibodies against the dangerous SARS-CoV-2 was first tested on hamsters, where it showed promising results by lowering the viral load and preventing tissue damage in the lungs with the injection of a single dose.

The company is hopeful of proceeding to the human clinical trial stage soon to test its efficacy and root out possible side-effects.

In what may be termed as a breakthrough in the fight against COVID-19, researchers based out of US have claimed to have found that properties present in Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) vaccine can help prevent certain side-effects of the viral infection, including septic inflammation. The observations, which have been published in mBio mention, “A clinical trial with MMR in high-risk populations may provide a low-risk-high-reward preventive measure in saving lives during the Covid-19 pandemic,

The MMR vaccine, like a lot of vaccines in use, contains a weakened strain of the infection spreading virus, which may help strengthen the body's immunity and prevent disease spread. If found to be successful, this might be a potential breakthrough in the fight against COVID-19. Till date, a lot of antiviral, and most recently, steroid drugs, such as Dexamethasone have been repurposed for treatment purposes, but no cure or preventable vaccine has been found yet.

In the most recent development, a group of scientists from Nigeria claimed to have found a workable vaccine against COVID-19, which has been locally produced in Africa, for the native population. Even though it has been made clear that the vaccine prototype would take a minimum of 18 months to be ready, researchers involved in the project said that the unnamed prototype has been developed after several rounds of testing. “The vaccine is real. We have validated it several times. It is targeted at Africans, but will also work for other races. It will work. It cannot be faked. This is a result of the determination. It took a lot of scientific efforts. The population of those that need vaccines is more than those that need drugs. That is why the research focussed on a vaccine,” said professor Julius Oloke, Head of the research group.