Vaccine makers fight on to stay ahead of Covid-19
9,000 JOBS GO BUT TRAVEL HOPE AHEAD
While the numbers of people infected with Covid-19 remain high it’s more likely that new variants will appear, so vaccine developers are having to deal with the rapidly evolving virus and are looking for ‘second generation’ vaccines.
Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London, says it may be wise to “hedge your bets”.
“What we’re talking about here is an arms race between the immune system and the virus. Which can move faster to win the battle?” he says.
Scientists in the UK are accepting that challenge by developing a homegrown Covid-19 vaccine with a built-in insurance policy against emerging variants of the virus.
The jab, being developed at the University of Nottingham, is designed to be effective even if a new variant evolves that evades other vaccines.
The novel Nottingham vaccine has a new twist. It includes part of the ‘nucleocapsid’ protein, a sheath that surrounds and protects the virus’s genetic engine. Crucially, this mutates at a far slower rate than spike proteins.
“It doubles the chances you win over the virus,” Professor Lindy Durrant, an immunologist at Nottingham University, says. “The chances both will mutate at the same time is unlikely.”
Animal studies are encouraging and show the new vaccine triggers a strong T-cell response, a powerful weapon of our immune system alongside antibodies, and having passed pre-clinical tests it will start trials in human volunteers very soon.
Professor Durrant says the next generation of vaccines need to be better prepared to tackle the virus as it “learns” to evade our immune system. “What has happened was predictable,” she says. “We are getting as good, if not better, antibody levels than other [vaccines], and more, and better T-cell responses.
“Clinical trials with the vaccine will begin later this spring”.
Professor Altmann says: “I can see the logic [to the Nottingham vaccine]. Our lab has seen evidence that the immune system sees many different parts of the virus and makes a response to the protein they are looking at. What we don’t know is how much extra that brings to the party.”
With the true ingenuity of UK vaccinology, the company Cobra Biologics is already producing batches of the Nottingham vaccine to test production and prepare for the trials.
Alexandra Brownfield, the firm’s business development director, says the vaccine is “grown” inside cells in a bio-reactor. Just 50 litres of a soup of cells and nutrients can produce “a few thousand doses” over four to six weeks.
Here we go again! The potential for a game-changing UK vaccine.
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Jab is designed to be effective even if a new variant evolves
Dear Coleen
Since before the first lockdown I’ve been struggling to get on with one of my best friends. We’ve known each other for 15 years and have always been close – confidantes as well as drinking buddies, and we’ve laughed and cried together through various life events.
However, she became really hard to be around or even to talk to on the phone – she was very critical of me, would go off radar for days or weeks, then get in touch and blame me for the lack of contact.
She criticised my boyfriend and even our four-year-old son!
She made some hurtful remarks – said in a very off-hand and casual way – and I was upset and tired of the drama, so I decided to step away and stopped getting in touch with her.
And I felt a lot better – it was like a weight had been lifted.
Now I feel terrible, though, because I’ve heard she’s split with her husband and is living with her parents.
Apparently, she’s been through an awful time and I had no idea. She never once told me there was anything wrong.
Would it seem hypocritical to get in touch? I don’t know if she’d welcome it. I’d love your advice.
Coleen says
I don’t know why she didn’t tell you – maybe if she’d admitted her marriage was in trouble, she would have had to admit it to herself and do something about it. Perhaps she envied you and your life because she was having a hard time – hence all the lashing out with nasty comments.
But look, I don’t think you should be afraid of getting in touch with her if that’s what you want to do. You didn’t know what she was going through and you made a decision that was right for you at the time.
If she didn’t tell you she struggling, how could you help?
Drop her an email and just be really honest – explain why you’ve been out of touch – and tell her you’re sorry about her marriage and that you’re there for her if she wants to talk.
You have years of friendship behind you and I’m sure it’s possible to revive your relationship if you both want to. Offer an olive branch and then leave the ball in her court.
Stress can make people behave in ways that are out of character and you might find she’s embarrassed about the things she said to you. I hope you can work something out.
She’d made some hurtful remarks so I stepped away
was
AIRCRAFT engine maker RollsRoyce is banking on a vaccine-fuelled recovery – after plummeting nearly £4billion into the red.
The Derby-based giant has been left reeling from a collapse in air travel caused by the pandemic.
As well as making engines, it raked in a lot of its money from servicing and repairing them.
Results out yesterday laid bare the scale of the impact, with the group plunging from a £583millon profit to a near £4bn annual loss.
Revenues crashed by £3.7bn and the company burnt through £4.2bn of cash.
In response, boss Warren East launched the biggest restructure in its recent history, with costs slashed and 9,000 in-house and contractor jobs set to go. But the company hopes the worst is over, with the rollout of Covid vaccinations heralding a return to air travel.
East said: “After a year like none other, the worst is well behind us and we can see a path to the future.”
He insisted the firm had enough funding to weather the crisis in the aviation industry.
Russ Mould, investment director at City firm AJ Bell, said: “Rolls’ lucrative spares and repairs revenue on its installed base of engines relies on planes being in the air.
“This is entirely outside of its control and depends on the course of the pandemic and the extent to which restrictions on overseas travel are lifted.”