COVID-19 vaccines: progress and understanding on quality control and evaluation

Signal Transduct Target Ther. 2021 May 18;6(1):199. doi: 10.1038/s41392-021-00621-4.

Abstract

The outbreak of COVID-19 has posed a huge threat to global health and economy. Countermeasures have revolutionized norms for working, socializing, learning, and travel. Importantly, vaccines have been considered as most effective tools to combat with COVID-19. As of the beginning of 2021, >200 COVID-19 vaccine candidates, covering nearly all existing technologies and platforms, are being research and development (R&D) by multiple manufacturers worldwide. This has posed a huge obstacle to the quality control and evaluation of those candidate vaccines, especially in China, where five vaccine platforms are deployed in parallel. To accelerate the R&D progress of COVID-19 vaccines, the guidances on R&D of COVID-19 vaccine have been issued by National Regulatory Authorities or organizations worldwide. The Center for Drug Evaluation and national quality control laboratory in China have played a leading role in launching the research on quality control and evaluation in collaboration with relevant laboratories involved in the vaccine R&D, which greatly supported the progression of vaccines R&D, and accelerated the approval for emergency use and conditional marketing of currently vaccine candidates. In this paper, the progress and experience gained in quality control and evaluation of COVID-19 vaccines developed in China are summarized, which might provide references for the R&D of current and next generation of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19 Vaccines* / chemistry
  • COVID-19 Vaccines* / immunology
  • COVID-19 Vaccines* / therapeutic use
  • COVID-19* / immunology
  • COVID-19* / prevention & control
  • Global Health
  • Humans
  • Quality Control
  • SARS-CoV-2 / immunology*

Substances

  • COVID-19 Vaccines