Coronavirus vaccine trial: Hundreds volunteer as scientists fast track human testing

Scientists hope to be mass producing a coronavirus vaccine by September – but not before it’s tested on hundreds of willing volunteers.

Human trials for a coronavirus vaccine will start in two days with UK scientists hoping the vaccine could be in mass production by September.

Scientists from the Imperial College London have accelerated the trial process of the vaccine and are in the middle of recruiting 1112 “healthy volunteers”.

During the blind study, up to 561 will be vaccinated with the candidate vaccine ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, and up to 551 will be vaccinated with a control vaccine. Volunteers will not know what group they are in.

There are hopes a coronavirus vaccine could be produced by September. Picture: Ted S. Warren/AP

Anyone chosen for the study will receive compensation for their time, travel and contribution and those who participate until the end will receive a total payment of £235 ($A457).

Hundreds have already signed up for the trial with many saying they would have done it even without financial compensation.

Imperial College London itself said while “there are no direct benefits of taking part … knowledge gained from this study will help us develop a vaccine against the newly emerging coronavirus disease COVID-19”.

The Imperial College NHS Trust are looking for healthy volunteers to participate in a #COVID19 #vaccine trial, for which they will receive up to £190-£625 reimbursement for time, travel and contribution to the trial. (1/2)

— Imperial Medicine (@ImperialMed) April 21, 2020

The potential vaccine breakthrough comes as the UK’s coronavirus death toll exceeds more than 17,000.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock also announced clinical trials at Oxford University would be given a boost of £20 million ($A40 million) and the Imperial College London £22.5 million ($A43.8 million) to put towards further vaccine research.

“I can announce that the vaccine from the Oxford project will be trialled in people from this Thursday,” Mr Hancock said at the UK’s daily press briefing.

“In normal times, reaching this stage would take years and I’m very proud of the work taken so far.

“At the same time, we will invest in manufacturing capability so that if either of these vaccines safely work, we can make it available for the British people as soon as humanly possible.

“After all, the upside of being the first country in the world to develop a successful vaccine is so huge that I am throwing everything at it.

“The UK is at the front of the global effort. We have put more money than any other country into a global search for a vaccine and, for all the efforts around the world, two of the leading vaccine developments are taking place here at home – at Oxford and Imperial.”

But he cautioned about the prospects of success, saying the process of vaccine development is one of “trial and error and trial again”.

Several studies of other vaccine candidates already are under way in the US and China.