Progress with COVID vaccine development and implementation
Richard W. Titball, David I. Bernstein, Nicolas V. J. Fanget, Roy A. Hall, Stéphanie Longet, Paul A. MacAry, Richard Rupp, Marit J. van Gils, Veronika von Messling, David H. Walker, Alan D.T. Barrett
Abstract
January 2024 marks the fourth anniversary of the identification of SARS-CoV-2 as the causative agent of the COVID-19 epidemic. Since that time, vaccine development has proceeded at an unprecedented and extraordinary pace due to the combined efforts of researchers from academia, industry, government and non-governmental organisations. These efforts, together with regulators, enabled the first vaccines to receive Emergency Use Authorisation (or equivalent) in under 12 months. As of February 2024, 64 vaccines are approved by one or more national regulatory authorities 1 . Vaccine platforms include inactivated viruses, mRNA, DNA, recombinant proteins, non-replicating and replicating viral vectors. Immunogens include the spike protein, receptor-binding domain, and spike protein ectodomain. Whilst the estimates of annual global deaths linked to COVID-19 have reduced by as much as 95% since the start of the pandemic, the disease remains a significant public health concern, with up to two million new infections reported annually. These new infections are linked to the emergence of variants of the original Wuhan-Hu-1 strain of SARS-CoV-2 that encode mutations that decrease the effectiveness of pre-existing immunity.