Viewpoints

Trials of COVID-19 vaccines: what can be learnt for the development of new antimicrobials? – by Stephen Senn

The development of vaccines for COVID-19 has been a magnificent achievement. At least five of these vaccines have been trialled in various European countries or North America. Table 1 summarises the vaccines and their characteristics. For further reading, I recommend Comparing the COVID-19 Vaccines: How Are They Different? by Kathy Katella1. In this article, I shall discuss various statistical aspects of five large phase 3 trials used to support vaccine registration in order to learn what key aspects of their success could inform other fields such as antimicrobial R&D.