Fast-track human trials to begin on ‘genetic hack’ vaccine
THE first human trials of a vaccine to fight coronavirus are to begin within days, scientists have announced.
Healthy volunteers in the US will be given the “genetic hack” after it bypassed standard animal testing as part of a highly accelerated process.
If it proves safe, it will then be tried on larger groups of patients infected with Covid-19 to test its efficacy.
Pharmaceutical industry leaders hope there could be millions of doses ready within 12 to 18 months, but admit that is “aspirational”.
Although a vaccine would come too late to prevent the expected peak of UK cases, forecast for May or June, it could dampen future waves. Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, says coronavirus could be an “annual seasonal infection”.
Meanwhile, other experts said natural immunity may not be permanent, meaning even those who have had Covid-19 would benefit from a vaccine.
Developed by Moderna, a Massachusetts-based company, the candidate vaccine is a departure from the traditional model in which a weakened pathogen, or protein from the surface of a pathogen, is injected so that the body learns to fight off future infections.
It is based on a molecule called messenger RNA, or MRNA, programmed to provoke human cells to produce coronavirus-like proteins, which the immune system can then learn to block.
Dr Melanie Saville, of the, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which is funding the Moderna candidate, said: “Contain and delay is the approach taken in the UK and a number of different countries.
“The approaches are really to buy time in the context of the stretch it puts on the healthcare system – it also buys time for vaccines to be developed. We don’t know how the pandemic will evolve, whether, for example, it comes in various different waves.”
CEPI is funding a further five programmes – one led by Imperial College London – which hope to have patients in trials by the end of the year.
Meanwhile Dr Nicola Rose, Head of Virology Division, National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, a government agency, defended progressing to human testing without using animals first.
“It’s not always essential to do preclinical testing and that is part of the scientific rationale,” she said.
Last night, Gordon Brown urged world leaders to come together to tackle the coronavirus outbreak and prevent a new recession.
The former prime minister called for an international scientific effort comparable to the Manhattan Project to build the atom bomb to fast-track development of a vaccine for Covid-19.