London: Scientists at Imperial College London will start immunizing people in Britain this week with their experimental coronavirus shot, becoming the latest entry into the race to find an effective vaccine to stop the pandemic.
About a dozen vaccine candidates are currently in the early stages of testing in thousands of people. There are no guarantees any will work but there’s increasing hope that at least some could be ready by the end of the year.
Many scientists have warned that the pandemic that has already infected at least 8 million people and killed over 4,37,000 worldwide might only be stopped with an effective vaccine, which typically takes years to develop.
In a statement, the British government said 300 healthy people will be immunized with two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed at Imperial, which has been backed by 41 million pounds (51 million US dollars) in government funding.
Robin Shattock, who is leading the vaccine research at Imperial, said the advantage of their vaccine is the small amount required: their dose is one-hundredth of the dose being tested by the NIH and Moderna Inc. That means millions of doses could be relatively quickly manufactured.
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“If the UK government wants to purchase enough vaccine for the UK population, we already have that infrastructure in place to deliver that in the first two quarters of next year,” he said.
The Imperial vaccine uses synthetic strands of genetic code based on the virus. Once injected into the muscle, the body's own cells are instructed to make copies of a spiky protein on the coronavirus. That should, in turn, trigger an immune response so the body can fight off any future COVID-19 infection.
Scientists have never created vaccines from scratch this fast and it’s far from clear that any will ultimately prove safe and effective. Still, numerous countries, including Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the US, have already placed advance orders for millions of vaccines.
Shattock said, "The Imperial vaccine, if effective, would not be licensed to any particular pharmaceutical, but various manufacturing partners around the world would be given permission to produce it as part of a 'social business' that does not make any profits."
“We can’t provide it at no cost because it takes money to make,” he said. “We'll provide it at cost of goods with a small percentage and that small percentage will vary depending on the economic status of the country,” he further stated.
The World Health Organization noted Monday about 1,00,000 new infections have been reported every day for the past two weeks and that relaxed lockdown restrictions in many countries have led to a new surge of cases.
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(With inputs from AP)
