The Oxford University in England is apparently leaping ahead of the pack in the global race to find a vaccine to Covid-19, the disease caused by a new coronavirus strain that has so far killed over 219,200 people around the world.
With human testing underway since April 23, scientists at the university have now said they are hopeful that a Covid-19 vaccine will be widely available by September, according to various media reports.
They said the scientists got a head start because of the technology they had developed in previous work on inoculations for other viruses, including one last year against a close relative of the novel coronavirus.
Sarah Gilbert, a professor of vaccinology at the university, told cbsnews.com: "Well personally, I have a high degree of confidence about this vaccine, because it's technology that I've used before."
Her team at the university’s Jenner Institute hopes for an 80% success rate, and plans to produce one million doses of the vaccine by September, with the aim of making it widely available by the autumn if successful, reports AFP.
Meanwhile, the experimental vaccine has worked in keeping coronavirus-free six rhesus macaque monkeys at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Hamilton, Montana, after they were exposed to the virus nearly a month ago, media reports said.
On the other hand, in the first phase of the human trials, half of 1,112 volunteers received the potential Covid-19 vaccine, and the other half a control vaccine to test its safety and efficacy.
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 recognize the protein and help stop the novel 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.
Drug companies brought into the fold
According to the Oxford scientists, if the vaccine proves to be effective, they could make the first few million doses of their vaccine available by September given the regulators clear emergency approval.
Scientists involved in the project are working with at least six drug manufacturing companies around Europe and Asia to prepare for mass-production of billions of doses as quickly as possible if/once the vaccine is approved, report The New York Times.
None of them, including the Serum Institute of India — the world’s largest supplier of vaccines, however, have been given exclusive marketing rights for the vaccine.
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, reports AFP.
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 last Wednesday.
But the teams carrying out this research say on their website that this timetable is "highly ambitious" and could change.
The British government, under fire in the media over its handling of the crisis, also 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.
