First patients injected in UK vaccine trial

The investigator leading the trial said that it would last at least a year but that investigators could know within a few months if the vaccine works. The British government is providing funding for two clinical trials of potential vaccines for the new coronavirus.

London: The first human trial in Europe of a coronavirus vaccine has begun in Oxford.

Two volunteers were injected, the first of more than 800 people recruited for the study, the BBC reported.

Half will receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and half a control vaccine which protects against meningitis but not coronavirus.

The design of the trial means volunteers will not know which vaccine they are getting, though doctors will. Scientists from Oxford University began trialling Thursday a COVID-19 vaccine on humans for the first time in the UK.

Professor Andrew Pollard, the investigator leading the trial, said that it would last at least a year but that investigators could know within a few months if the vaccine works.

Pollard said the other challenge would be upscaling production.

"It's certainly possible if nothing goes wrong in that upscaling process, that there could be millions of doses available in the autumn," he said. "But to get to the scale that we need to control this pandemic is going to take much longer than that."

The British government is providing funding for two clinical trials of potential vaccines for the new coronavirus.

The one in Oxford is being granted 20 million pounds (24.5 million US dollars).

Another at Imperial College London will get 22.5 million pounds (28 million US dollars) to support its phase-two clinical trials.

Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said the government will invest in manufacturing capacity if either, or both, of the vaccines, work.

However, he cautioned about the prospects of success, saying the process of vaccine development is one of “trial and error and trial again.”

(With inputs from AP)