Abstract
Since COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection, has become a global issue, many vaccines and therapeutic candidates have been developed or are being developed against the COVID-19 endemic and the next wave. However, it is difficult to overcome the spread and mutation rate of SARS-CoV-2 in the COVID-19 pandemic because development of vaccines and therapeutics involves considerable social cost and time, as well as research capabilities. Thus, assessing the development status of these agents is important for advancing efficient research strategies. In this review, we summarize the status of 141 vaccines and 345 therapeutic candidates under development worldwide, according to their development stage and characteristics. As of June 2022, 32 vaccines and 12 therapeutics have been approved for emergency use. Although the development of four of these therapeutics was terminated owing to their low efficacy against various variants of SARS-CoV-2, many new candidates that have completed phase 3 clinical trials have been awaiting phase 4 clinical trials or full approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These efforts are expected to contribute to establishing an efficient research strategy to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and facilitate its transition toward an endemic phase.
Electronic Supplementary Material (ESM)
The online version of this article (doi: 10.1007/s12257-022-0188-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, vaccine, therapeutics
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grants (NRF-2021M3E5E 3080540 and NRF-2020M3A9I2108176 to S.J.K.), the NRF grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (NRF-2020R1C1C1010106 to W.L.), and the National Research Council of Science & Technology (NST) grant (CRC-16-01-KRICT to S.J.K.) funded by the Korea government (MSIP).
Ethical Statements
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Ethical approval and informed consent were not required for the study.
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Publisher’s Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
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