Human trials of £27bn virus vaccine to start next month
‘We have the kind of technology to be able to generate a vaccine with a speed that’s never been realised before’
HUMAN trials of a vaccine against coronavirus are due to start in April, with British scientists competing with dozens of laboratories around the world to be the first to develop a drug.
Researchers have been working against the clock to produce a preventive jab or pill since China genetically sequenced the virus in January.
Several labs have prototype vaccines that are being trialled in animals, and many are confident they will move to human testing next month.
If proven safe and effective, larger “live situation” trials will be carried out to see if inoculation works in a natural scenario. If successful, a vaccine could be widely available early next year.
Prof Robin Shattock and his team at the Department of Infectious Disease at Imperial College London (ICL) developed a candidate vaccine within 14 days of getting the genetic sequence.
They have been testing it on animals since Feb 10 and hope to move to clinical trials in the summer if they secure funding. Rather than creating a traditional antibody jab, the ICL drug works by effectively injecting new genetic code into a muscle, instructing it to make a protein found on the surface of coronavirus, which triggers a protective immune response.
“We have the kind of technology to be able to generate a vaccine with a speed that’s never been realised before,” said Prof Shattock.
“We may not be the first, but it only requires one group to get there. At some point we might say, ‘Somebody else is ahead, we should stop working.’ While we want to go the whole way, we’re also prepared to stand down.”
Prof Jonathan Heeney at the University of Cambridge’s Laboratory of Viral Zoonotics said his team’s preclinical phase of vaccine testing was “well under way” and moving quickly.
Meanwhile, Prof Sarah Gilbert’s group at the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Medicine are working on a vaccine using the same technology they used to generate a prototype inoculation for the 2012 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) outbreak.
The Government has pledged £40million to find a vaccine, and the Wellcome Trust a further £10million.
Earlier this week, executives from drug giants Gilead, Johnson & Johnson, Glaxosmithkline, Sanofi and Pfizer met with Donald Trump to assure the US president they were making rapid progress in vaccines and antivirals.
To date, some 35 companies and institutions are working on the problem worldwide, with the US furthest ahead.
Dr Antony Fauci, the head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said human trials would begin within six weeks and predicted that a vaccine would be ready in 12 to 18 months.
Joseph Kim, the CEO of Pennsylvania-based Inovio pharmaceuticals, which has a vaccine in animal testing, believes one million doses could be available by the end of the year.
Elsewhere, the MIGAL Research Institute in Israel said human testing would begin within eight to 10 weeks.
Finding a vaccine would prove exceptionally lucrative, with asset management firm Alliancebernstein estimating an effective drug would be worth £27billion to the industry.
However, even when a vaccine is rolled out, it will be initially limited to health workers and the most vulnerable, so many companies are testing whether current medications could be repurposed to fight coronavirus.
The most promising is remdesivir, a broad-spectrum antiviral being trialled by the US National Institutes of Health on 13 patients in hospital after contracting coronavirus on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan.
HIV drugs may also work and this week the Department of Health banned the export of the dual antivirals ritonavir/lopinavir as well as antimalarial chloroquine to make sure the NHS has an uninterrupted supply. A Department of Health spokesman said: “Medicines in the UK that may be needed by our patients should not be diverted to other countries for financial gain and this precautionary measure will ensure UK patients are protected.”
Prof Chris Whitty, the Government’s chief medical officer, added: “The key thing is to find drugs that are currently licensed that work against this virus. We will not be able to develop a new drug before it reaches its peak.”
China has approved the use of favilavir, an antiviral drug, as a treatment for coronavirus while its ministry of science and technology is testing chloroquine phosphate and remdesivir.
The country is also waiting for ethical approval for a new stem cell therapy, while China National Biotech Group is trialling a “special immune plasma”.
Pfizer said this week it had discovered several antiviral compounds that may inhibit coronavirus and hoped to begin testing by the end of the year.