Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- In expert and analytical circles, the activation of world pharmaceutical companies to develop a vaccine against COVID-19 is actively discussed. As the BBC reports, on 8 September, 9 companies developing a vaccine against COVID-19, including Pfizer (USA), BioNTech (Germany), AstraZeneca (Great Britain-Sweden), took a "historic oath" to adhere to high scientific and ethical standards in their work. These companies said they will apply for approval of the vaccine after it passes all three stages of clinical trials.

Commenting on this, experts draw attention to the following.

First, the state of the development process. According to the WHO, around 180 vaccine variants are being tested around the world, and none of the vaccines under development has passed all the stages of the necessary clinical trials. In this regard, the WHO believes that by the end of this year vaccine approval should not be expected. This is due to the fact that none of the proposed vaccines finally demonstrated even 50% effectiveness.

This is confirmed by the message from AstraZeneca that the company has suspended the third phase of trials of the vaccine against COVID-19 in the United States due to the manifestation of "a side effect in one of the patients."

Second, the co-production of the vaccine. According to Deutsche Welle, in Germany, it is planned to conduct clinical trials of a vaccine against COVID-19, developed by the German BioNTech and the American Pfizer. It is noted that if the tests are successful, the companies plan to apply for the admission of the vaccine to the market in October.

It is planned that the trials will involve up to 30 thousand volunteers who will receive a vaccine or placebo. If the vaccine is admitted to the market, it is planned to release up to 100 million doses by the end of this year, and in 2021 it is planned to produce more than 1.3 billion doses.

In general, experts emphasize that the coordinated and systematic work of vaccine development companies is aimed, on the one hand, at preventing the politicization of the process, which may undermine public confidence, on the other, at the high-quality development of a vaccine in the right time frame instead of showing the world community “PR campaigns".