LONDON, April 23, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Oxford University is launching a
human trial of a potential coronavirus vaccine, with 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 — described by the United Nations as the only route back to
“normality” — seven are currently in clinical trials, according to
the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Such trials are already underway in China and the United States and
are due to begin at the end of this month in Germany, where the
federal vaccine authority gave the green light on Wednesday.
The British government strongly supports Oxford University’s work,
and the first human trials were to start on Thursday, Health Minister
Matt Hancock said.
He hailed the “promising development”, pointing out that it would
normally take “years” to reach such a stage of vaccine development.
In its first phase, half of 1,112 volunteers will receive the
potential vaccine against COVID-19, the other half a control vaccine
to test its safety and efficacy.
The volunteers are aged between 18 and 55, are in good health, 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 percent success
rate, and plans to produce one million doses by September, with the
aim of making it widely available by the autumn if successful.
But the teams carrying out this research say on their website that
this timetable is “highly ambitious” and could change.
The government’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty acknowledged on
Wednesday that the likelihood of getting a vaccine within the year was
“incredibly small”.
“If people are hoping it’s suddenly going to move from where we are
in lockdown to where suddenly into everything is gone, that is a
wholly unrealistic expectation,” he warned.
– Financial gamble –
The strategy of not waiting for each step to be completed before
launching production is a financial “gamble”, according to Nicola
Stonehouse, professor of molecular virology at the University of
Leeds.
But the current crisis makes it a necessary gamble, she told AFP.
The Oxford vaccine is based on a chimpanzee adenovirus, which is
modified to produce proteins in human cells that are also produced by
COVID-19.
It is hoped the vaccine will teach the body’s immune system to then
recognise the protein and help stop the coronavirus from entering
human cells.
The adenovirus vaccine is known to develop a strong immune response
with a single dose and is not a replicating virus, so cannot cause
infection, making it safer for children, the elderly and patients with
underlying diseases such as diabetes.
The government, under fire in the media over its handling of the
crisis, set up a task force last weekend to coordinate research
efforts and to develop capability to mass-produce a vaccine as soon as
it is available, wherever it comes from.
It 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, 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, calling for an acceleration of projects.
The UN on Monday adopted a resolution calling for “equitable,
effective and rapid” access to a possible vaccine.