Covid-19 Treatments And Medications In The Pipeline
A shield against the global pandemic is the vaccine. It is significant for kids to be vaccinated so that they have the chance to become adults. According to a recent survey, at current capacity, the demand-supply shortage is about 5 crore doses per month. The ever-widening gap between the demand and the supply can only be reduced by the ensuring vaccine equity, affordability, and availability for all economies across the globe.
A Glimpse into Different Vaccines Available
| Vaccine/Company Name | Type | Doses | Approval Date | Cost (US$) | Efficacy | Variants |
| BioNTech (Pfizer) | Mrna | 2, 21 Days Apart | December 11, 2020 | 19.50 per dose | About 95%. | Against UK and South African variants. |
| Moderna (ModernaTX, Inc) | mRNA | 2, 28 Days Apart | December 18, 2020 | 25-37 per dose | About 95%. | Against the UK, African and Latin American variants. |
| Covishield and Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca) | Adenovirus-based | 2, 28 Days Apart | January 12, 2021 | 2.15 per dose | About 70% overall. | Against UK and Brazilian. |
| Janssen (J&J) | Adenovirus-based | 1 | February 27, 2021 | 10 per dose | About 77% | Africa, UK, Latin America, |
| Sputnik V (Panacea Biote) | Adenovirus-based | 2 | Not applicable in the U.S. | 10 per dose | 91.4% | Unknown. |
| COVAXIN (Bharat Biotech) | Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 virus | 2, 28 days apart | Not applicable in the U.S. | 2 | 100% against severe infection | Wildtype; can neutralize UK variant |
DEMAND VS. SUPPLY
Globally speaking, only 2% of the entire world population comprising of the adult section has been vaccinated as per current statistics. Moreover, the requirement for every individual to be vaccinated is about 14 billion doses, but as per manufacturers only 9.5 million doses can be produced by 2021.China is producing the vaccines at an enormous rate to fill the gap created by the absence of India and US. To know more about the global Covid-19 Vaccine Pipeline analysis visit report titled “COVID-19 – Pipeline Analysis 2020 for Global Market” published by UnivDatos Market Insights.
| Country name | Doses Administrated (Crores) | Fully vaccinated | Percentage of population fully vaccinated | Vaccines used |
| India | 17.4 | 3.73 crores | 2.7 % | Covishield, Covaxin |
| United Kingdom | 5.37 | 1.81 crores | 27.1 % | Pfizer/BioNTech, Oxford/AstraZeneca |
| US | 26.3 | 11.7 crores | 35.5 % | Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, J&J |
| Russia | 2.18 | 86.4 lakhs | 6 % | SputnikV, EpiVacCorona |
| Italy | 2.5 | 77.3 lakhs | 12.8 % | Pfizer/BioNTech, Oxford/AstraZeneca, Moderna |
| Mexico | 2.13 | 94.9 lakhs | 7.4 % | Pfizer/BioNTech, Oxford/AstraZeneca, Sputnik V |
| Spain | 2.02 | 63.3 lakhs | 13.5 % | Pfizer/BioNTech, Oxford/AstraZeneca, Moderna |
Outlook for 2021-2022:
The pandemic continues to spread across the globe at an alarming pace which is very difficult to predict. The socio-economic policies, vaccination equity as well as health and humanitarian framework will determine the pace at which a particular country recover. Furthermore, a coordinated global effort is the need of the hour for countries to come together and investigate segments such as debt sustainability, fiscal space for financing various policies and universal protection approach. In the absence of long-term structural changes, the prevailing inequalities will deepen and be exposed to the crisis at hand. Tackling the immediate impacts of the pandemic and helping ensure international peace should be the current objective on bringing an end to the crisis.