IN PHOTOS: What goes into making a Covid-19 vaccine

February
In February, Ahmedabad-based Zydus Cadila announced that it was initiating an accelerated research programme with multiple teams in India and Europe to develop a vaccine. Researchers at the Vaccine Technology Centre of Zydus Cadila are developing a DNA vaccine ‘ZyCoV-D’, which is currently in Phase 2 of clinical trials

February
At Australia’s national science agency Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), George Lovrecz, research team leader of the manufacturing division, works on a fermenter in which vaccine proteins are grown. The CSIRO’s Clayton factory started manufacturing a pilot dose of the vaccine in February, which  they called “the first candidate of possibly many”

February
Adeline Danneels (left), a technician from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNIR), and Sandrine Belouzard, virologist, work in a high-level biosafety laboratory at the Pasteur Institute in Lille, France, in February. The research institute sequenced the genome of the coronavirus using blood samples taken from the first few confirmed cases in France

February
Piero Di Lorenzo, president and CEO of IRBM, which is headquartered in Rome, Italy. The research organisation has signed an agreement with The Jenner Institute at Oxford University, UK, for testing the latter’s Covid-19 vaccine

March
The headquarters of German biotech firm CureVac in Tübingen, Germany. According to German media outlet Welt am Sonntag, US President Donald Trump sought exclusive access for the United States to a potential coronavirus vaccine under development by CureVac. The issue caused diplomatic ripples with the German government, which wanted the potential vaccine to be available for Europe and other countries as well, not just for the United States.  The company registered for Phase 2 trials of their mRNA vaccine in August

April
About 220 volunteers from Wuhan, China, the city that is the epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic, participate in clinical trials of a vaccine candidate developed in the Asian country, which went into Phase 2 of human clinical trials in April

April
Registered nurse Heather Hoppe was one among the 2,000 frontline staff from the Fiona Stanley Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and the Perth Children’s Hospital in Australia who participated in a research trial to test whether an existing tuberculosis vaccine could help against contracting Covid-19. Half the participants received the existing Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine in addition to their flu vaccine, while the other half received the regular flu shot.

April
Robert Langer, co-founder of biotech firm Moderna at his Cape Cod residence in Massachusetts, US. Moderna was one of the first companies to react to the Covid-19 outbreak back in January. Along with the NIH (National Institute of Health), it began working on an mRNA vaccine candidate even before the first coronavirus cases outside of China had been confirmed. This potential Covid-19 vaccine has since entered Phase 3 of clinical trials, secured a funding boost of almost $500 million and been fast-tracked through regulatory protocols by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

May
In Germany, people demonstrate in front of the Reichstag building (which houses the German Parliament) against compulsory vaccination and the “freedom-limiting” measures of the Federal Government in the context of the spread of Covid-19

May
A research scientist at Verndari Inc, a biopharmaceutical company in Napa, California in the United States, tests VaxiPatch, a pantented, painless microneedle array derm patch that can be applied to the arm. In April, Verndari, in collaboration with the University of California, Davis, began pre-clinical testing of potential Covid-19 vaccine that can be adminstered through VaxiPatch

May
In May, even as the pandemic continued to worsen, supporters of US President Donald Trump rallied to reopen California. Seen here is a protestor holding up an anti-vaccination sign. The protesters, organised by an activist group Latinos 4 Trump 2020, asked for the restrictions on business, social distancing and recreational movement to be removed

June
Christoph Hueck, a German molecular biologist, speaks to journalists during an interview in Stuttgart, Germany. Hueck, a prominent voice among those opposed to mandatory vaccinations, has addressed mass protests in Stuttgart against lockdown measures, which he claims are an instrument of government control. He has also questioned the role of Microsoft Founder Bill Gates, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in coronavirus vaccine research. Bill Gates has become a central target of many conspiracy theorists world over

July
A researcher at the National Primate Research Center of Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, which is leading the development of a homegrown Covid-19 vaccine in the country. The vaccine candidate went through the animal testing phase with evaluations on mice, followed by monkeys. Thailand says it is likely to begin human clinical trials in October

July
A group of traditional healers protest against vaccine trials on humans in Africa at the Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa. The first phase of clinical trials in Africa was for the vaccine developed by the Jenner Institute at Oxford University, UK, and it began on June 24 in South Africa

July
India’s first fully-integrated biosafety level-3 (BSL-3) production facility at Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech that will produce the Covaxin vaccine. Based on an inactivated virus, Covaxin is developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV). It started combined Phase 1 and 2 of trials in June

July
Members of the Gurukul School of Arts in Lower Parel in Mumbai congratulate Oxford University, UK, using paintings after the latter’s success in early human trials for its vaccine in July.

August
A nurse, Sarah Aldana Rangon, resident of Sao Paulo, Brazil, volunteers in a study for the Covid-19 vaccine candidate by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac. According to local media reports, one million volunteers registered for the trial within five days

August
Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld has his arm disinfected by Dr Chao Wang during a clinical trial of biotech firm Moderna’s vaccine at the Meridian Clinical Research in Maryland, US.  Moderna became the first American company to enter Phase III of clinical trial for a potential coronavirus vaccine

August
Laboratory workers supervise centrifuges at the production plant of mAbxience, a biotechnology company in Garin, Argentina, which belongs to the Grupo Insud business conglomerate. The company has undertaken manufacturing of the Covid-19 vaccine created by Oxford University and pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca

August
A volunteer receives a Russian-made polyvalent vector vaccine for Covid-19 as part of clinical trials at Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University. Human trials for the vaccine, developed at Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, started in June. In August, the vaccine candidate became the first  to receive regulatory approval, despite skepticism. It is expected to be available to the general public from January 2021

August
The Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by volume, starts trials of the vaccine made by Oxford University and AstraZeneca in August. The SII plans to manufacture about 300-400 million doses of this vaccine by the end of the year