Vaccine
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As the number of confirmed Coronavirus cases increase, developing a vaccine that fights the virus becomes the top priority of all public health officials. Pharmaceutical companies along with their researchers work hard to make such vaccines available to the public as soon as possible.

Developing a vaccine requires a lot of process. The vaccine needs to get an approval from the Food and Drug Administration. After the manufacturing and preclinical testing, the vaccine must undergo three phases of human testing. According to Dr. Antony Fauci, director of National Institute of Infectious Disease, the earliest time a vaccine is made available to the public will be a year or a year and a half from today.

mRNA-1273 from Moderna Inc.

Moderna Inc. has already started their human testing phase 1 for mRNA-1273. The testing is being held at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle. It involves 45 healthy adults between the age of 18 and 55. They expect phase 1 to end in 6 weeks.

The vaccine was developed through the genetic sequence from COVID-19 or mRNA. Instead of creating a vaccine with the virus itself, Moderna used a sequence of the virus' sequence genetic code. The vaccine from Moderna is designed to target the affected cell, create an antibody and boost immune response.

The phase 1 of the human testing is done to test the safety of the product and how it produces immune response. Later, the research will focus on the effectiveness of the vaccine towards the virus.

REGN3048-3051 by Regeneron Pharmaceutical

An antibody treatment is being developed by Regeneron Pharmaceutical of Tarrytown, New York. The pharmaceutical company modifies mice to resemble a human immune system and exposes them with the virus. After its exposure, the mice develop an antibody on its own.

Along with the antibodies from the survivors of COVID-19, the antibodies formed by the mice are recovered. The top two antibodies are then selected which will then be injected to the patient. The company's primary goal is for the antibodies to target different parts of the virus so it can still work despite the virus mutating.

REGN3048-3051 is meant to target the protein spike on the virus cells to prevent it from communicating with its host cells. By doing so, the virus will be neutralized. The company suggests the vaccine to be used to infected patients but also recommends it as a preventive vaccine for the healthy.

INO-4800 from Inovio Pharmaceuticals

The last drug on the list is from Inovio Pharmaceuticals of Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. Same as Moderna, Inovio is formulating a vaccine by reconfiguring the virus' genetic code.

Three hours after the virus' genetic sequence was released online, Inovio developed the vaccine. They used DNA medicine made up of optimized DNA plasmids. The plasmids are then introduced to the affected cell, which results in a stronger immune response.

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A vaccine against MERS has been developed by Inovio using this method and is currently in phase II. Currently, INO-4800 is under preclinical testing and is expected to be under human testing by April.