A Comprehensive Investigation Regarding the Differentiation of the Procurable COVID-19 Vaccines

COVID-19 caused by coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 became a serious threat to humankind for the past couple of years. The development of vaccine and its immediate application might be the only to escape from the grasp of this demoniac pandemic. Approximately 343 clinical trials on COVID-19 vaccines are ongoing currently, and almost all countries are motivating ongoing researches at warp speed for the development of vaccines against COVID-19. This review explores the progress in the development of the vaccines, their current status of ongoing clinical research, mechanisms, and regulatory approvals. Many pharmaceutical companies are already in the endgame for manufacturing various vaccines of which some are already being marketed across the globe, while others are yet to get approval for marketing. The primary aim of this review is to compare regulatory accepted vaccines in terms of their composition, doses, regulatory status, and efficacy. The study is conducted by grouping into approved and unapproved vaccines for marketing. Different routes of administration of vaccines along with the efficacy of the routes are also presented in the review. A wide range of database and clinical trial data is reviewed for sorting out the information on different vaccines. Unfortunately, many mutations (alpha, beta, gamma, delta, kappa, omicron etc.) of SARS-CoV-2 have attacked people in very short time, which is the great challenge for investigational vaccines. Moreover, some vaccines like Pfizer’s BNT162, Oxford’s ChAdOx1, Moderna’s mRNA-1273, and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin have got regulatory approval in some countries for its distribution which may prove to stand tall against the pandemic. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text]