COVID-19 vaccine could be ready by September from researchers in UK at Oxford University
An injection against coronavirus could be ready by September, based on work done on a chimpanzee-based vaccine that is set to be trialled on humans shortly.
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An injection against coronavirus could be ready by September.
A team of Oxford University immunology researchers are unusually optimistic about the chances of the vaccine — based on work already done on a chimpanzee-based vaccine and set to be trialled on humans in a fortnight.
Professor Sarah Gilbert, a no-nonsense scientist leading the study, said she was “80 per cent” confident of success.
“I think there’s a high chance that it will work based on other things that we have done with this type of vaccine,” she told The Times.
“It’s not just a hunch and as every week goes by we have more data to look at … I would go for 80 per cent, that’s my personal view.”
The Oxford researchers started on the vaccine on January 10 and have been working seven days a week.
So called “seed stock” of the vaccine is currently being produced at the University’s Clinical Biomanufacturing Facility.
From there, it will be transferred to Italian manufacturer Advent who will initially produce 1000 doses for the first clinical trials of the vaccine.
They have recruited 510 healthy adults for a trial, due to start within two weeks in the UK, with candidates selected from the region around Oxford University.
However, because of lockdowns that have slowed the spread in the UK they also plan studies across the globe because they need people to get infected with the virus naturally.
The vaccine under trial — ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 — had already been used in some trials as far back as 2017.
The British Government has been supporting the study and was willing to spend millions to manufacture it quickly, potentially before final results were back.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates has also pledged to spend billions on potential vaccines even though he accepts many may not work.
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“Our early money can accelerate things,’ Mr Gates said on US television last week.
“Even though we’ll end up picking at most two of them, we’re going to fund factories for all seven.
“(It’s) so that we don’t waste time in serially saying which vaccine works and then building the factory.
“The only thing that really lets us go back completely to normal and feel good about sitting in stadiums with lots of other people is to create a vaccine and not just take care of our country but take that vaccine out to the global population.”
The UK has lost almost 9000 people to coronavirus, while the worldwide death toll has passed 100,000.
If the Oxford University trial was successful, it has the potential to save hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives in the developing world where the virus has just started to take hold.
Professor Gilbert had been working on a vaccine for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), a precursor to COVID-19.
Originally published as COVID-19 vaccine could be ready by September from researchers in UK at Oxford University