BREAKTHROUGH BY UK SCIENTIST IN HUNT FOR VACCINE: SKY
LONDON: A leading British scientist has made a significant breakthrough in the race for a coronavirus vaccine by reducing a part of the normal development time from “two to three years to just 14 days”, Sky news reported.
Robin Shattock, head of mucosal infection and immunity at Imperial College London, said he is now at the stage to start testing the vaccine on animals as early as next week with human studies in the summer if enough funding is secured, Sky said.
“Conventional approaches usually take at least two to three years before you even get to the clinic,” he told Sky. “And we’ve gone from that sequence to generating a candidate in the laboratory in 14 days.”
The vaccine will be too late for this current outbreak but it will be crucial if there is another one, Sky said.
US WORKING WITH DRUG FIRM ON TREATMENT WASHINGTON: The US is working with a pharmaceutical company to develop a treatment for the coronavirus, using a class of drug that has boosted survival rates among Ebola patients.
The partnership between the department of health and human services (HHS) in the US and Regeneron will develop monoclonal antibodies to fight the infection, a different line of treatment to the antiretrovirals and flu drugs that have also emerged as possible defences against the disease.
“Emerging infectious diseases can present serious threats to our nation’s health security,” said Rick Bright, an official at the HHS.