More than two years have passed since the start of the pandemic that has caused the most serious health emergency in the last century. The consequences of an incident of this magnitude are incalculable because they go beyond the lives that have been lost. At the same time, it has also encouraged the scientific community to offer alternatives such as the development of drugs and treatments against Covid-19. Much remains to be done, but the first favorable results have already been achieved.
Vaccines designed in record time
In this sense, the union of Pfizer and BioNTech generated the first immunization against this new disease. It was an unprecedented event because before the 12th month of the first reported contagion, the biological was already available. To achieve this, studies of other coronaviruses that already existed were essential. In addition, current technology helped reduce times to a minimum.
Since then, other options have been designed to combat this pandemic. To date there are at least 20 vaccines that have passed all the clinical phases and are already being applied around the world. In the case of Mexico alone, the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris) has already authorized the emergency use of 10 different biologicals.
But although each one has a different percentage of effectiveness, in the end they all have the same objective. They were created to decrease the chance of having a serious stage of the disease that can be fatal.
Other options that are already available
On the other hand, there are also the drugs against Covid-19 that have been designed. So far the most prominent because they have already been approved in different countries are oral antivirals Molnupiravir of Merck and Paxlovid. Both were conceived for hospitalized patients at risk of progressing to a severe stage of the disease.
Although that is not all because the figures compiled by Statisticalbased on data from Pharma Intelligencepoint out that there are more than 1,400 medicines and vaccines to treat and/or prevent Covid-19 that are under development in the world.
Of the works mentioned, only 29 have received authorization for commercialization. While another 118 are the most advanced because they are in the third phase of clinical trials. Therefore, it is expected that before the end of this 2022 they can see the light.
In addition, there are 233 in phase 2, 120 in phase 1, another 655 in the preclinical stage and finally 269 whose evolution is not specified. Although all of them represent hope to increase the range of drugs against Covid-19 around the world.
Regarding our country, one of the most advanced projects is the homeland vaccine which is currently in phase 2 and has requested the recruitment of volunteers. In addition to the fact that it has not only been developed for its application in Mexico, but its export to other low-income countries is planned.