The Latest News in the Covid-19 Vaccine Race
Everything that happened in the hunt for a coronavirus vaccine this week
Published in
2 min readSep 25, 2020
- Two more candidates move to phase 3. This week, two front-runners in the Covid-19 vaccine race advanced to the final stages of clinical trials, bringing the number of vaccines in phase 3 to 11. On Wednesday, Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine advanced to phase 3 trials, and on Thursday, Novavax followed suit. As the New York Times reported, Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine may have an advantage over its competitors because it could need only one shot instead of two and doesn’t have to be kept frozen. Meanwhile, the vaccine from Maryland-based Novavax has shown very promising results in monkeys, but the company has never brought a vaccine to market before.
- FDA clashes with the White House. A report published Tuesday by the New York Times revealed that the Food and Drug Administration was planning to announce stricter vaccine regulations that would make it impossible for a vaccine to be approved before Election Day. The White House immediately chafed — President Donald Trump insists that a vaccine will be available by then — and said it might push back on the FDA’s decision. “That has to be approved by the White House,” Trump said at a press briefing on Wednesday. “We may or may not approve it. That sounds like a political move.”
