CORONAVIRUS: CSIRO begins testing vaccines
Australia’s science agency has begun the first stage of testing potential vaccines for COVID-19.
Australia’s science agency has begun the first stage of testing potential vaccines for COVID-19.
The CSIRO says the testing is expected to take three months, and is underway at its high-containment biosecurity facility in Geelong, Victoria.
It says that after studying the virus’s genomic sequence, it can confirm coronavirus is changing into a number of distinct ‘clusters’. The research team is now starting to look at how this may impact on the development of the vaccine.
Scientists at CSIRO last month began studying the course of infection in ferrets to help understand if a vaccine will work. They had established that ferrets reacted to the presence of the virus.
CSIRO has partnered with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, a global group tasked with derailing epidemics by speeding up the development of vaccines.
The coalition has identified vaccine candidates from The University of Oxford and Inovio Pharmaceuticals in New York to undergo the first preclinical trials at CSIRO, with further vaccine candidates likely to follow. CSIRO’s role is to conduct trials for vaccine candidates produced by those two centres.
CSIRO chief executive Larry Marshall says beginning vaccine candidate testing at CSIRO is “a critical milestone in the fight against COVID-19, made possible by collaboration both within Australia and across the globe”.
“CSIRO researchers are working around-the-clock to combat this disease which is affecting so many, whether it’s at the Australian Animal Health Laboratory or at our state-of-the-art biologics manufacturing facility. We will keep working until this viral enemy is defeated,” Dr Marshall said.
CSIRO says it is testing the COVID-19 vaccine candidates for efficacy (effectiveness), and evaluating the best way to give the vaccine for better protection, including an intramuscular injection and innovative approaches like a nasal spray.
The lead of CSIRO’s COVID-19 virus and vaccine work, Professor Trevor Drew says CSIRO has been studying SARS CoV-2 since January.
"We are carefully balancing operating at speed with the critical need for safety in response to this global public health emergency.”
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