“Does the World Still Need New Covid-19 Vaccines?” is the title of an article from the New England Journal of Medicine and a matter scientists around the globe are actively exploring. The editorial looks at the publication of two large Phase III trials of two new Covid-19 vaccines, whose development was based on two new technology platforms: one is derived from a plant-based coronavirus-like particle vaccine, and the second one is a receptor-binding domain (RBD)–dimer–based vaccine.

 “Although there was a global shortage of Covid-19 vaccines in 2021, by mid-2022, the vaccine supply will no longer be a limiting factor in efforts to provide more equitable coverage. As of April 19, 2022, approximately 11.5 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered globally. So why do we still need new Covid-19 vaccines?  A total of 344 Covid-19 vaccine candidates have been developed or are still in development.3 Of these, 31 vaccine products are already in large-scale use after conditional approval by national regulatory authorities or under the WHO Emergency Use Listing. At least five different technology platforms have been used (i.e., messenger RNA [mRNA], viral-vectored, inactivated whole-virus, protein subunit, and plasmid DNA approaches). Several of the inactivated whole-virus and protein subunit vaccines need adjuvants to potentiate the immune response.”1

The authors emphasize that the world still needs new Covid-19 vaccines in order to cover infections due to new emerging variants and to offer a wider choice to sub-populations like immunocompromised patients, elderly people or pregnant women. In addition, new vaccines should have a better schedule of administration and less rigid cold-chain logistics requirements.

Read the complete editorial here.

Disclaimers

  • The material in these reviews is from various public open access sources, meant for educational and informational purposes only
  • Any personal opinions expressed are those of only the author(s) and are not intended to represent the position of any organization(s)
  • No official support by any organization(s) has been provided or should be inferred

References

  1. Nohynek, H., & Wilder-Smith, A. (2022). Does the World Still Need New Covid-19 Vaccines? New England Journal of Medicine, 386(22), 2140–2142. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejme2204695