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Originally Posted by nffc
But researching something and publishing it takes time to build up the evidence, get enough examples and stuff for it to be done, then write it all up - peer reviewing means after it's published then other research groups studying similar examine it and see if there are other findings or not.
This process usually takes a lot longer than we have had covid vaccines as science generally doesn't move that quickly. In some cases such as the longer side effects of either vaccination or infection the evidence isn't even there yet. It can take years for an article to be published in a journal and then even longer for peer review of this research to take place. We have had covid vaccines for little over two ..
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What journals take years to review a paper? The paper I linked to up there was submitted in October 2021 and accepted in November 2021. Peer review can take time but in an emergency, reviewers will bump up the reviews in their ‘to do’ list. I have a few papers to my name and longest to get published took about three months as a reviewer really didn’t like one of our conclusions.
The case of COVID vaccine approval has frustrated the pharmaceutical industry somewhat. Once a potential drug is patented, the clock is ticking to make some money from that drug before the patent expires. Generally, the patent process is started before clinical trials start so drug companies want to run through these as quickly as possible and get approval to start making some money. Modern drugs can cost up to $2bn to bring to market so the longer you have sole rights to make and sell a drug, the better. The COVID vaccine case showed what could be done to accelerate drug approvals. The safety trials went first but phase II and III trials ran almost concurrently. The trials were performed normally but the gaps between trials were hugely reduced. It wasn’t a lack in the stringency of the trials which sped things up, it was the efficiency of the process.
I did look up the safety trial for the Pfizer vaccine and it looked like it ran for 17 weeks in total. This was purely the safety trial. Of course, safety was still looked at through the phase II and III trials and continues to be looked at through post marketing surveillance. I then checked another modern vaccine - Gardasil for HPV. With that vaccine, safety trials ran for 14 days!