Eight pharmaceutical companies are seen to be paving the way for the entire world to finally break free from the near 1-year grip of the coronavirus.
Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE
Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE are leading the race for finding the cure for COVID-19 with 95 percent efficiency overall but 94 percent efficiency for persons above 65 years.
Specifically, BioNTech is a German biotechnology company in collaboration with Pfizer, which is an American multinational pharmaceutical corporation.
The companies plan to produce 50 million vaccine doses in 2020 and 1.3 billion by the end of 2021, precisely 300 million doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine for the European Union, 30 million for the UK, 100 million for the U.S. and 120 million for Japan.
Moderna Inc.
Moderna Inc. has a rather close edge with Pfizer and BioNTech by developing a 2-dose vaccine with so-called messenger RNA that has 94.5 percent efficiency rate, as revealed in its publication earlier in the week.
The pharmaceutical firm targets producing between 500 million and 1 billion doses yearly by 2021 with the shipment of about 20 million doses this year 2020.
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AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford
AstraZeneca Plc is a British–Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, England whereas the University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxfordshire, England.
On November 9 2020, CSL Limited, a global biotechnology company began manufacturing contracts to produce up to 30 million vaccine doses for AstraZeneca and the Australian Government with its first dosage projected to be out by mid-2021.
Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American multinational corporation that deals with pharmaceuticals and medical devices, and headquartered in New Jersey.
Despite losing ground for two weeks due to a safety concern, Johnson & Johnson has rebounded with possible initial trial results by the start of 2021 and seeks acceleration by the UnitedHealth Group Inc.
J&J has pledged 500 million doses to low-income markets starting in mid-2021.
Novavax Inc.
Novavax Inc. is an American vaccine development company headquartered in Maryland, preparing for its late-stage U.S. trial latest November ending to test its efficiency levels.
Novavax has collaborated to supply Australia with 40 million doses by half-year 2021, Canada with 76 million doses, and the UK with 60 million doses by Q1 2021 and an expected global capacity of over 2 billion doses by mid-2021.
Sanofi and partner GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Plc
The Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham merger called GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is a British multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in England and ranked the world’s sixth largest pharmaceutical company according to Forbes in 2019.
On the other hand, Sanofi is a French multinational pharmaceutical company with its headquarters in Paris, France
Two of the world’s biggest vaccine and drug makers, Sanofi and partner GSK Plc anticipate to start advanced trials of their candidates by year-end and produce 200 million vaccine doses by 2021 to support COVAX and annual supply capacity of 90-360 million doses.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. is an American biotechnology company headquartered in New York and nearing the tail end of its Phase 2/3 trials.
Its producer, Roche Holding AG whose experimental therapy was used to treat US President Donald Trump in October, anticipates the manufacturing of 2 million doses in 2021 if granted authorization by the U.S. regulators over the next few days.
Eli Lilly & Co.
Eli Lilly & Co. is an American pharmaceutical company headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana with its treatment for those at the early stages being granted a green light from U.S. regulators.
After receiving emergency use authorisation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the company said in its press release that, “the U.S. government will allocate 300,000 doses of bamlanivimab to high-risk patients, with no out-of-pocket costs for the medication”.
Already, “88,000 doses of its antibody therapy were supplied on Monday, November 9 2020 and 10,000 more or so will continue to be supplied every couple of days until December when the company would have produced about 800,000 doses,” said the Chairman and CEO, Dave Ricks.
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