LONDON (Reuters) – A leading scientist behind Oxford University’s potential COVID-19 vaccine said on Wednesday the team had seen the right kind of immune response in the trials, but declined to give a firm deadline for when it might. be prepared.
Speaking at a parliamentary hearing, Sarah Gilbert, a professor of vaccination at the university, said 8,000 volunteers had signed up for Phase III of her vaccine trial, AZD1222, which was licensed by AstraZeneca.
“We are very pleased to see the correct type of immune response that will provide protection, and not the incorrect type,” said Gilbert.
The project has begun Phase III of human trials to evaluate how the vaccine works in large numbers of people over the age of 18, and how well the vaccine works to prevent people from becoming infected and ill with COVID-19. .
The race is to develop a working COVID-19 vaccine, in fear that the pandemic may escalate again by the end of the year, in the northern hemisphere winter season.
Kate Bingham, chair of the UK Government’s Vaccine Task Force, said that, excluding the Oxford vaccine program, she expected there would be a breakthrough in early 2021.
Gilbert said he expected his Oxford vaccine to progress sooner, but was not more specific, as he said the timing for when the vaccine is ready depends on the results of the trial.
John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, said Britain should prepare not to have a COVID-19 vaccine during the winter and encourage people to get a flu shot to avoid “pandemonium” in hospitals.
“This entire epidemic has been based too much on assumptions that have turned out to be not true,” he said.
“So my best advice is to be prepared for the worst.”
(Report by Alistair Smout and Josephine Mason; Gareth Jones and Nick Macfie edition)
