Quote:
Originally Posted by sfshooter
I'm just curious........what phase of testing are we in now with these covid vaccines? I'm guessing this is probably the first time humans have been used for phase II and phase III tests?
I only bring this up because, to my knowledge, the quickest testing and brought to market ever done was on the mumps vaccine and that took 4 years.
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Phase I, II and III are always conducted in humans. The difference in the case of vaccines is the size (#of test subjects) and complexity (# and type of cohorts, and #of test locations).
This is why I, as a small, private drug developer, would never, never embark down the path of vaccine development. The economics, risk/reward just don't work for a small company!
Oh, and to your question about the speed of development re: the mumps vaccine. The shortened development timeline was due entirely to the development of the antigen by using the newly developed mRNA technology rather than using killed virus or developing an inactivated variant. None of the safety/efficacy studies were abbreviated or altered in any way to shorten the Covid vaccine approval.