BioNTech, moderna, curevac, covid-19, coronavirus, vaccine:
20200320AD
BTM Innovations, public-private partnership, Apeiron, SRI International, Iktos, antiviral drugs, AdaptVac, ExpreS2ion Biotechnologies, pfizer, janssen, sanofi, 

On March 16, the European Commission announced that it offered EUR 80 million in support to the German company CureVac to accelerate work on the coronavirus vaccine. This information appears the day after German government sources said the Donald Trump administration was looking for a way to get access to this potential vaccine. Does this mean that there is only one company that is working on a solution that is so important for humanity? WHO (World Health Organization) publishes data on 13 such companies on its pages, and the Global Data database indicates 30 institutions working on the topic. So are there any chances for a quick remedy for our troubles? The devil is always in the details.
Officially, there is only one company - American Moderna - that has gone to the phase of clinical trials where the vaccine is being tested on humans. Tests are conducted in the United States at the Washington Institute of Health Research in Seattle. Such rapid development of a potential vaccine is unprecedented and was possible because scientists were able to use the experience of related coronaviruses that caused SARS and MERS epidemics. Despite record fast work, even if the vaccine proves safe and effective against the virus, it will not be available for at least a year.
All other players seeking to develop a coronavirus vaccine are currently at most pre-clinical stage. The preclinical stage is research in laboratories and animals that can only lead to vaccines in about a year and a half. It's hard to say who wins the race for the vaccine, but the biggest chances are not start-ups, but big drug companies.

The German company CureVac cooperates with a public institution based in Oslo, the so-called Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI). They are working on an mRNA-based vaccine. Like the American giant Moderna mRNA, CureVac wants to prove that mRNA vaccines will be developed and manufactured faster than traditional vaccines and intends to move to Phase I clinical trials early this summer.
Like CureVac - the German company BioNTech, which develops mRNA vaccines for cancer and influenza - is the subject of a potential partnership with the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to develop a vaccine for the Covid-19 virus. Sanofi and Janssen cooperate with the American Biomedical Advanced Office for Research and Development (BARDA) and are also at a preclinical stage.
Many smaller projects are also underway. On Monday, EUR 2.7 million in subsidies under Horizon 2020 was allocated to the Danish public-private consortium: biotechnology companies ExpreS2ion Biotechnologies and AdaptVac. The consortium intends to launch a phase I / IIa clinical trial for the vaccine within 12 months.

While the earliest vaccines may be in Phase I preclinical studies up to summer, regulatory authorities will probably require one to two years of human testing to ensure that the vaccine is safe and effective. After obtaining approval, companies can start producing and distributing the vaccine on a commercial scale, which also takes a long time. In summary, the world can see the approved Covid-19 vaccine only around mid-2021.
However, it turns out that the vaccine is not the only salvation. Many companies expect to develop new antiviral drugs or adapt current experimental drugs to fight the new virus. This is a difficult task, because unlike bacteria, viruses hide in our own cells. This means that medicines that stop viruses affect our cells more often, which can cause side effects.
The Paris company Iktos, dealing in the creation of drugs using artificial intelligence, has started cooperation with the American chemical company SRI International. The goal of the collaboration is to develop new antiviral drugs for the treatment of Covid-19 and other types of viruses. The Austrian biotechnology company Apeiron began a phase II pilot clinical trial of the candidate drug against Covid-19 at the end of February. The protein drug has already completed Phase I and II studies in the treatment of acute lung injury and is expected to act by mimicking the protein with which coronavirus binds during lung invasion. there are also many projects aimed at changing the use of approved antiviral drugs for the treatment of Covid-19. This has the advantage that the drug's safety is already known and can reach the market faster. Researchers at institutions in Göttingen and Berlin, Germany, are currently investigating the potential of kamostat mesylate - a drug approved in Japan for the treatment of pancreatitis.

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