Developer of Oxford vaccine cautious about 2020 roll-out

LONDON/ SAO PAULO: The University of Oxford’s possible Covid-19 vaccine could be rolled out by the end of the year, but there is no certainty, the lead developer of the vaccine said on Tuesday.

The experimental vaccine, which has been licensed to Astrazeneca, produced an immune response in early-stage clinical trials, data showed on Monday, raising hopes it could be in use by the end of 2020.

“The end of the year target for getting vaccine roll-out, it’s a possibility, but there’s absolutely no certainty about that because we need three things to happen,” Sarah Gilbert told BBC Radio.

She said it needed to be shown to work in late-stage trials, there needed to be large quantities manufactured, and regulators had to agree quickly to licence it for emergency use before large numbers of people could be vaccinated.

England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty and his deputy Jonathan Van-tam took differing views on the timeline.

“The chance of us getting a vaccine before Christmas that actually is highly effective are, in my view, very low,” Whitty told lawmakers. However, Van-tam was “cautiously optimistic that we will have some vaccine this side of Christmas”.

The Oxford scientists had eyed a million doses of the potential vaccine to be produced by September.

BRAZIL GEARS UP FOR PHASE 3 TRIALS

Brazil was set to begin advanced clinical testing of a Chinesemade vaccine on Tuesday, issuing the first doses to around 900 volunteers. The vaccine, developed by Chinese firm Sinovac, is the third in the world to enter Phase 3 trials.