Why is there little news about the gradual launch of new crown vaccines?

From the end of 2020 to the present for more than two months, a variety of new crown vaccines have been approved for marketing worldwide, and large-scale vaccination has begun in China, the United States, Russia, Brazil, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and other countries and regions for the global economy and society The restoration of order brought dawn.

After the celebrations around the world, people have forgotten that apart from vaccines, there is another way to deal with the new crown epidemic—therapeutic drugs.

The global epidemic situation continues to be severe

Figure 1.

Source: World Health Organization, Zhongkang Industrial Capital Research Center

According to statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), from December 30, 2019 to February 28, 2021, in a 14-month period, the cumulative number of confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia worldwide exceeded 113 million, of which the cumulative number of deaths Over 2.

Among the major epidemic areas in the world, the combined proportions of confirmed cases and deaths in the Americas and Europe are approximately 78% and 82%, respectively.

Figure 2.

Source: World Health Organization, Zhongkang Industrial Capital Research Center

Prospects for the application of new crown vaccines and therapeutic drugs

In the face of the continuing severe new crown epidemic, in addition to social isolation and wearing masks for uninfected people, it is recognized that the most effective prevention method is to vaccinate.

In view of the small number of new crown vaccines currently approved and the limited production capacity, it will not be able to meet the vaccination needs of 98.

In addition, it should be noted that the cumulative number of confirmed patients with new coronary pneumonia according to WHO statistics is about 113 million.

Looking at the cost, take the first approved new crown treatment drug remdesivir (Veklury) as an example.

As for the price of the new crown vaccine, the current vaccine development country has not announced the price.

In December 2020, Jiangsu Province released the results of the new crown vaccine procurement.

The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), the Alliance for Epidemiological Prevention and Innovation (CEPI) and the World Health Organization have established the Global Access Guarantee Mechanism for New Coronary Vaccines (COVAX) in order to promote the development, production and fair access of new crown vaccines.

Although the higher price of Remdesivir will bring disadvantages to market promotion, but it will not break fast.

In the period when the new crown vaccine has not yet been approved, Remdesivir almost dominates the market.

In addition, it is also necessary to consider that patients with new coronary pneumonia do not have to use remdesivir.

Overview of the development of new crown therapeutic drugs

The current new crown treatment drugs, in addition to the FDA officially approved Remdesivir, there are also several neutralizing antibodies that have obtained emergency use authorization (EUA), such as Regeneron's REGN-COV2 (casirivimab/imdevimab), Regeneron and Jun Bamlanivimab/etesevimab (LY-CoV555/JS016) jointly developed by Shibi.
The new coronavirus neutralizing antibody is special and can be used to treat patients with new coronary pneumonia.
For example, former US President Trump has received REGN-COV2 treatment, and it can also be used for short-term prevention of new coronavirus infection.

According to statistics on public clinical trial databases (ClinicalTrials.
gov in the United States and ChiCTR.
org.
cn in China) in mid-February 2021, there are currently about 200 phase III and phase IV clinical trials of new crown treatment drugs in the world.
36 of these trials will release data before the end of April.
These 36 clinical trials include 28 phase III clinical trials, 7 phase IV clinical trials, and 1 master agreement trial (ACTIV-1 IM) for which interim results will be released soon.
These 36 clinical trials are about 27 candidate new crown treatment drugs.

The 27 drug candidates include 4 types of drugs: antimicrobial drugs, antithrombotic drugs, immunomodulators, metabolic modulators, and a small number of other drugs.
Among them, immunomodulators are the largest category, including 10 drug candidates, such as colchicine, methylprednisolone, infliximab, etc.
; antimicrobial drugs and antithrombotic drugs each have 5 drug candidates.

Figure 3.
Some candidate new crown treatment drugs that will soon announce late-stage clinical data

Source: clinicaltrials.
gov, chictr.
org.
cn, Zhongkang Industrial Capital Research Center

In general, in order to accelerate the speed of research and development, the development strategy of most candidate new crown therapeutic drugs is to expand the indications of mature drugs that have been on the market for many years.
There are also a few unlisted drugs, such as cenicriviroc for HIV and mesenchymal hepatocytes ( MSC) therapy remestemcel-L and so on.
It is worth noting that a considerable proportion of clinical trials are initiated by academic institutions, and their funding sources and R&D capabilities are usually limited.
Under the impact of the continuous listing of new crown vaccines, many companies and academic institutions may terminate the research and development of new crown treatment drugs.

Conclusion

Around the Spring Festival, Chinese and foreign new crown vaccines have been approved one after another, which has brought good news to the world.
It is expected to promote the health of all mankind, restore the global economic and social order, and promote global development on the right track.
Although the application of the new crown vaccine has brought a huge impact to the market of new crown therapeutic drugs, the long-term immune effect of the new crown vaccine remains to be seen.
For patients with immune failure or secondary infection, the new crown treatment drugs will play a major role.
Although the vaccine is good, the therapeutic drugs are also an essential part of the prevention and treatment plan.
For the health of all mankind, the new crown vaccine and new crown treatment drugs are indispensable.