COVID-19 Vaccine Status: Moderna, Sinovac Biotech To Do Phase 3 Trials; Global Cases Cross 7 Million

COVID-19 cases across the world cross 7.41 million, including 4,18,000 deaths and two leading names in the development of a vaccine, US firm Moderna Inc and China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd have made apparent progress with their experimental candidate. The AZD1222 vaccine, being jointly developed by British pharma giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University, is presently undergoing phase II trials with 10,000 volunteers. American firm Johnson & Johnson said it had fast-tracked the start of human clinical trials for its recombinant Ad26.COV2-S vaccine by two months to the second half of July. More than 100 potential Covid-19 vaccines are in various stages of development around the world. Among front runners currently in human trials are the Covid-19 vaccines being developed by AstraZeneca, Pfizer, BioNtech, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Moderna, Sanofi and China’s CanSino Biologics.