There is no causal therapy against the coronavirus yet, currently only the symptoms can be alleviated. But the pharmaceutical industry is already developing vaccines.
- So far, only the symptoms of a coronavirus infection * have been alleviated.
- Doctors are looking for specific therapies against the virus - and are researching vaccines.
- It usually takes up to ten years or more to develop new vaccines.
Update from 05.05.2020: Companies worldwide report progress in vaccine development against Covid-19 - the "vaccine king of India" wants to start manufacturing in two weeks at the latest. It is not without reason that Cyrus Poonawalla, an Indian businessman, got his nickname: Poonawalla has been in the vaccine business for more than 50 years. His company Serum Institute of India is considered the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world. As the news reported, Poonawalla now plans to produce 40 million vaccine doses from a promising vaccine candidate. It is a serum developed by the University of Oxford and is currently being tested on more than 1,000 British people. Although the clinical tests have not yet ended, Cyrus Poonawalla's son Adar Poonawalla, as the current managing director, said in an interview with the Indian news broadcaster NDTV: "These tests could prove successful and safe until September or October. In my view, the chances are good because the Oxford researchers were also successful in vaccinating against Ebola. "
The mass vaccine is scheduled to go into production in just two weeks - with the goal of producing up to 40 million vaccine doses in the next few months. The project is considered to be economically extremely risky , as the Serum Institute of India would have to suffer severe losses if the tests in Great Britain did not achieve the desired success.
Coronavirus vaccine development: First clinical trial in the United States
Update from 03/19/2020, 10:00 a.m . : The first clinical test of the possible coronavirus vaccine "mRNA-1273" started in the USA in mid-March 2020. 45 healthy volunteers will be injected with two doses of up to half a milligram of the active ingredient each within the next few weeks. The first phase of the clinical test is currently running in a research institute in the northwestern metropolis of Seattle, as the mirror reported. The vaccine was developed in cooperation with the private biotechnology company Moderna. The researchers assume that the entire process of vaccine development will take at least a year.
Update of March 19, 2020 : Countless pharmaceutical companies, research institutions and universities worldwide are currently using all resources to develop a vaccine against the novel lung disease Covid-19 as quickly as possible . Infection with coronaviruses, also called Sars-CoV-2, can - depending on the patient's state of health - be asymptomatic or life-threatening *.
German companies are also researching effective vaccines, such as the Tübingen company CureVac. Together with the Paul Ehrlich Institute for Vaccines and Biomedical Drugs, CureVac has already reported progress. " We are very confident that we will be able to develop an effective vaccine candidate within a few months, " the Tagesschau quotes former CureVac CEO Daniel Menichella. The company hopes to have developed an experimental vaccine by July, which will then be approved for human testing with regulatory approval.
This message now also brought Donald Trump on the scene. According to the daily news, the President of the United States is trying to bring German researchers to America so that they can develop drugs there that are to be used exclusively for US corona patients. However, CureVac does not strive for a deal with the United States .
More on the topic : Threat difference: Covid-19 and flu in comparison .
No drugs against Covid-19 yet
Article from March 12th, 2020 : The spread of the corona virus causes worried citizens worldwide. So far, 245,484 infections have been reported (as of March 20 , 2020 ), most of those affected live in the central Chinese province of Hubei. Its capital, Wuhan, is the center of the pandemic. The first people to have contracted the novel corona virus are said to have been infected there.
10,031 fatalities are currently being sued, most of them in China. Currently only the symptoms can be alleviated, there are (as yet) no medications that make the coronavirus harmless. But doctors are feverishly researching treatment options * that specifically target the virus. The pharmaceutical industry and research institutes have also started to develop vaccinations against the virus.
Read also : Does a face mask protect against coronavirus infection? Who should wear them .
40 vaccine projects underway: University of Queensland reports success
According to the Association of Researching Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (vfa), at least 40 vaccine projects have started worldwide , including a project by the German company BioNTech, two projects by the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) and a project by the Israeli Biological Research Institute.
Promising test results have already been reported for some vaccine projects. On March 16, 2020, testing of a vaccine manufactured by the US company Moderna on volunteers began. According to the vfa, the first clinical studies with volunteers for the vaccine of the US company Inovio have been announced for April 2020 . A project by the University of Queensland has achieved animal testing. The University of Hong Kong had also announced that it had found a vaccine against the coronavirus * that is now to be tested further. It would take months before he went through all animal and human studies.
The development of a new, safe and effective vaccine can take up to 20 years and cost up to a billion euros, according to the medical newspaper. Thanks to new technologies and financial support, it should be possible within a few months to develop prototype vaccines to such an extent that they can be tested on animals and humans.
Read also : Dangerous drug shortage in Germany? Coronavirus pandemic with serious consequences .
Coronavirus vaccine will be late - scientists say
Another factor that could accelerate vaccine development: Vaccine developers already have experience with pathogens from the coronavirus family. The SARS virus belongs to the group of coronaviruses, which claimed countless fatalities in 2002/2003. At that time, over 20 vaccine development projects were underway - but some were stopped because the virus disappeared again . At the time, however, researchers were able to record some interim results that can be used in the fight against the current corona pandemic.
It is not yet clear how the coronavirus pandemic could develop and when a vaccine will be available. British disease expert Jeremy Farrar believes that a vaccine against the novel corona virus will be too late to prevent the global spread of the disease. In the Spiegel interview, he said: " And if we are unlucky, it will never succeed ".
More sources : www.bundesgesundheitsministerium.de ; www.rki.de ; www.asiaone.com; www.experience.arcgis.com; www.tagesschau.de; www.vfa.de; https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html; www.spiegel.de
Survey on the subject
Read more : This is the only way hand washing protects against viruses: Every second person does it wrong.
Frankfurt : The tourism industry in Frankfurt clearly feels the effects of the corona virus *. Hotels and trade fairs in particular are affected by the decreasing tourism from China. However, there is no need to worry.
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