Q1 2020: A dose of hope for the COVID-19 vaccine — but what next?

The race is on to find a vaccine for COVID-19, with trials beginning around the world at a seemingly exponential rate. Last week, the UK’s Health Secretary revealed that the University of Oxford would be trialling a vaccine on humans in a matter of days. Pfizer and BioNTech also got the green light for Germany’s first human trials. There are also five candidates at the clinical vaccination stage and 71 in preclinical evaluation, according to a list compiled by the World Health Organisation.⁴https://www.who.int/blueprint/priority-diseases/key-action/novel-coronavirus-landscape-ncov.pdf Although four companies represent about 85% of the global vaccine market — GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, Merck and Pfizer⁵https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/21/coronavirus-brings-light-to-the-35-billion-vaccine-market.html — both legacy players and start-ups have entered the fray.⁶https://www.marketwatch.com/story/these-nine-companies-are-working-on-coronavirus-treatments-or-vaccines-heres-where-things-stand-2020-03-06 While some projects are focusing on traditional vaccine approaches, others are using newer technology.