London: Oxford University is launching a human trial of a potential coronavirus vaccine. The researchers have the daunting aim of making a successful jab available to the public later this year.
Of the more than 100 research projects around the world to find a vaccine, seven are currently in clinical trials. This information has been provided by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The United Nations (UN) has also said that the only way to return to ‘normality’ is through a vaccine.
Such trials are already underway in China and the United States. They are due to begin at the end of this month in Germany. The federal vaccine authority in Germany gave the green light Wednesday.
British health minister hopeful
The British government is strongly supporting Oxford University’s work. The first human trials started Thursday according to British Health Minister Matt Hancock.
Hancock hailed the ‘promising development’. He pointed out that it would normally take ‘years’ to reach such a stage of vaccine development.
Human trials begin
In its first phase, half of 1,112 volunteers will receive the potential vaccine against COVID-19. The other half will be administered a control vaccine to test its safety and efficacy.
The volunteers aged between 18 and 55, are in good health. They have not tested positive for COVID-19 and are not pregnant or breastfeeding. Ten participants will receive two doses of the experimental vaccine, four weeks apart.
Professor Sarah Gilbert’s team hopes for an 80 per cent success rate. The researchers plan to produce one million doses by September. If the trials are successful the aim is to make the vaccine widely available by the autumn. But the teams carrying out this research say on their website that this timetable is ‘highly ambitious’ and could change.
Hoping against hope
British government’s CMO Chris Whitty acknowledged Wednesday that the likelihood of getting a vaccine in 2020 was ‘incredibly small’.
“People should not hope it’s suddenly going to move from where we are in lockdown to where suddenly into everything is gone. It is a wholly unrealistic expectation,” warned Whitty.
Professor Nina Stonehouse feels the strategy of not waiting for each step to be completed before launching production is a financial ‘gamble. She is a professor of molecular virology at the University of Leeds. But the current crisis makes it a necessary gamble, she told this agency.
Development of vaccine
The Oxford vaccine is based on a chimpanzee ‘adenovirus’. It has been modified in such a manner it can produce proteins in human cells. These proteins will be similar in type to those produced by COVID-19. Researchers are hoping the vaccine will teach the body’s immune system to recognise the protein. It will then prevent the coronavirus from entering human cells.
With a single does the ‘adenovirus’ can develop a strong immune response. As it is not a replicating virus, it cannot cause infection. Hence it is safe for children, the elderly and patients with underlying diseases such as diabetes.
The British government has been under fire in the media over its handling of the coronavirus crisis. It set up a task force last weekend to coordinate research efforts and to develop capability to mass-produce a vaccine.
Focus also on Imperial College
The government is also supporting research at Imperial College London, which hopes to start clinical trials in June. Their research focuses on a vaccine exploiting a different principle. It will be using RNA, the messenger molecules that build proteins in the cells, to stimulate the immune system.
Finding a vaccine is the only possible way to bring the world back to ‘normality’, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned last week.
AFP