India Pharma Outlook Team | Friday, 15 December 2023
The World Health Organization (WHO) has published a report examining the benefits and limitations of mRNA vaccine technology due to the potential impact of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. This report highlights the importance of research and development (RandD) for COVID-19 mRNA vaccines and the challenges of unequal access.
The success of the mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 is related to HIV, influenza syncytial virus (RSV), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), cancer treatments and vaccines. Other essential factors include thousands of people eager to participate in clinical trials, research collaboration, and unprecedented funding levels.
However, the results of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 have not been distributed worldwide due to lack of research and development capacity, intellectual property barriers, strict distribution requirements and high costs in high-income countries low and medium "Unravelling the potential of mRNA technology beyond the Covid-19 vaccine requires rigorous research to address its limitations in advance," says Professor Harold Varmus,
Chair of the WHO Scientific Committee, Nobel Laureate and former Director of the Institutes National Institutes of Health of the United States. "To improve mRNA vaccine technology, future research is needed to develop temperature-stable vaccines, increase the duration of protection, and ensure that they are effective in various dishes and varieties."
The report recommends a framework for assessing the value of mRNA technology in developing vaccines and treatments for other infectious diseases. The framework could also confirm the technology's potential role in treating cancer and autoimmune diseases.