Developmental Status of the Potential Vaccines for the Mitigation of the COVID-19 Pandemic and a Focus on the Effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA Vaccines

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Along with the continued in silico-based studies for drug designing and repurposing followed by the corresponding cell culture studies, the ongoing clinical trials with some completed regarding finding the drug efficacy and the vaccine development against the severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have been the most functional and indispensable issue during the current COVID-19 pandemic within 2020 and onward. The present review attempted to figure out the update on this effective vaccine and discussed the other promising vaccines. RECENT FINDINGS: A range of investigations on the SARS-CoV-2 genomics, on its similarities with SARS-CoV-1, and with the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) have been accomplished and the host immune dodging mechanisms by the SARS-CoV-2 have been unraveled which in turn led the scientists around the world to work rigorously on the vaccine development. Working with various vaccine platforms so far revealed the efficacy of the mRNA-1273 vaccine as the most effective one as resulted through the clinical trials which resulted in 95% positive output. SUMMARY: Although currently commercialized mRNA-1273 vaccine appears to be effective, still several points are to be pondered regarding the sustainability of vaccine efficacy against the rising variants of SARS-CoV-2.