Vaccine test results expected in six weeks

Scientists working on a vaccine against coronavirus could know within six weeks whether it will work, they have said.

Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, said ‘‘several hundred’’ Britons have now been given the experimental jab, with hopes that ‘‘signals’’ about whether it works could emerge by mid-June. Human trials began last week, and the team working on the vaccine hope that if it works a million doses could be given to the public from September. A successful vaccine is key to lifting social distancing measures.

Ministers announced a partnership between Oxford University and AstraZeneca, which aims to ensure that a successful vaccine is rapidly rolled out.

Sir John said the research team had already done ‘‘a great job’’. He told on BBC Radio 4: ‘‘They have vaccinated several hundred people now, and we hope to get some signal about whether it’s working by the middle of June.’’

He said the partnership would ensure the vaccine could be quickly rolled out, if it works.

‘‘Once we get an approval by the regulators we don’t want to have to go back to the beginning and work out how we manufacture it at scale.

‘‘We also want to make sure that the rest of the world will be ready to make this vaccine at scale so that it gets to populations in developing countries, for example, where the need is very great. We really need a partner to do that and that partner has a big job in the UK because our manufacturing capacity in the UK for vaccines isn’t where it needs to be, and so we are going to work together with AstraZeneca to improve that considerably.’’

He said the plans would mean preparing facilities to be able to produce 30 or 40 million doses of the vaccine in the first instance, as well as expanding production of the vials used to contain them. The competition for vaccines meant shortages of such products, he stressed, meaning a ‘‘big and powerful partner’’ was needed in order to compete.

Asked if Britain would get first priority, if the vaccine succeeds, he said that around 30 million people who are vulnerable would be given the first round of jabs, but said Oxford was already talking to partners overseas to ensure they could also make it available quickly. ‘‘We are very conscious of the fact that we do not want a lag in the availability of this vaccine between developed countries and developing countries.’’

In the United States, talk turned yesterday to how quickly the federal Food and Drug Administration might act on Gilead Sciences’s remdesivir after preliminary results from a major study found it shortened the recovery time by an average of four days for people hospitalised with Covid-19.

‘‘You do now have a drug that you have proven can actually work on the virus,’’ the National Institutes of Health’s Dr Anthony Fauci said.

‘‘Will it be an overwhelming cure? No, of course not,’’ Fauci said. But with its use, ‘‘you will free up hospital beds, you will take less stress on the health care system.’’

No treatment currently is approved for treating the virus, which has killed more than 230,000 people worldwide since it emerged late last year.

When independent experts monitoring the study called with the news that the drug was working, study leader Dr Andre Kalil, of the University of Nebraska, said he was ‘‘almost speechless’’ with joy.

Separately, researchers from Nottingham said they expect to be able to produce millions of doses of their vaccine within 18 months. The team of scientists from the University of Nottingham, Nottingham Trent University and Scancell, a cancer treatment manufacturer, said it might protect people for longer than other vaccinations in development. The programme targets a specific type of cell to boost the immune system and help it fight off the coronavirus. –