Coronavirus vaccines: All you need to know about Moderna, Pfizer and Sputnik's vaccine candidates

A year ago on this day, the first official case of COVID-19 was reported in Wuhan, China. More than 100 days later, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared it a global pandemic. Today, we have three potential vaccine candidates against the disease with an efficacy rate of over 90 percent. The US drug regulator will approve a vaccine if it has an efficacy rate of over 50 percent.

The latest to join the bandwagon is US biotech major Moderna. The company was only founded a decade ago, but today, it is going toe-to-toe with the biggest pharmaceutical giants. Moderna reported phase-3 results claiming an efficacy rate of 94.5 percent, which is higher than both Pfizer and Russia's Sputnik. And like Pfizer, this is also a 2-dose vaccine.

Back home, the hunt for an indigenous vaccine has entered the last lap. Bharat Biotech has begun phase-3 trials of its vaccine candidate. This will be the last round of trials and will involve 26,000 volunteers.

The Indian government however is not pinning all its hopes on a home-made remedy. The centre has initiated talks with global vaccine manufacturers to keep all options open.

To discuss about the potential vaccine candidates, CNBC-TV18 spoke to Dr. NK Ganguly, Former Director General of ICMR and Dr. Gagandeep Kang, Vaccine Expert and Professor at Christian Medical College.