Buzz
You’re probably familiar with hydroxychloroquine, but have you heard about Remdesivir, Roivant, and Athersys? If you’re watching the search for a COVID-19 vaccine, did you know that there are more than a dozen candidates currently undergoing trials or preparing to begin soon? This tracker from healthcare news site STAT provides all the information you need.
While the tracker doesn’t cover every drug and vaccine in development, it highlights some of the most talked-about ones and prioritizes those with the most advanced progress at the top of the list.
For drugs, the leading entry is Remdesivir, which has entered phase 3 trials. Previously tested on SARS, MERS, and Ebola, it was hoped to be a broad-spectrum antiviral. Now, it’s being trialed on COVID-19 patients, although phase 3 trials in China were paused due to insufficient eligible patients.
Among the vaccine candidates, the leading one is Moderna’s mRNA vaccine, which began its phase 1 trials in March. None of the vaccines have entered phase 2 trials yet, which means it will take time before we know if any of them are effective, and even longer before we can manufacture and distribute a global supply. It could be years before the first vaccine is ready (the fastest vaccine ever developed took four years), but this chart allows us to monitor the progress of the development process.
