[ad_1]
LONDON :
The UK government announced on Tuesday that the human trial of a possible COVID-19 candidate vaccine developed by researchers at the University of Oxford will start on Thursday.
Scientists at Oxford University last week promised a super-fast vaccine during a virtual press conference, saying the vaccine will be available in September. According to lead researcher Professor Sarah Gilbert, her ‘ChAdOx1’ vaccine may work against the coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2.
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock, during the daily press conference at 10 Downing Street, said the government will provide £ 20 million to the Oxford research team to help finance its clinical trials, with another 22.5 million pounds for researchers at Imperial College London, reports The Independent.
“The team has accelerated that testing process, working with regulator MHRA (Regulatory Agency for Medicines and Health Care), which has been brilliant. As a result, I can announce that the Oxford project vaccine will be tested in people starting this Thursday. Hancock said.
In the normal course of time, a vaccine is taken at any time between 12-18 months.
What probably separates ChAdOx1, known as the recombinant viral vector vaccine, from the rest is the time it promises to take to deliver massive amounts.
Professor Andrew Pollard, a member of the Oxford team, told Sky News: “If you had a sail wind and absolutely nothing goes wrong in all that complex technical process and you have all the facilities available, you could receive millions of doses by autumn this year “.
At the end of March Professor Gilbert received £ 2.2m as funding from the UK government for vaccine development and testing.
The researchers enrolled more than 500 healthy volunteers to assess whether their vaccine can prevent the new coronavirus.
The vaccine is an adenovirus vaccine vector and was developed at the Jenner Institute in Oxford. Adenoviral vectors are a well-studied type of vaccine that has been used safely in thousands of participants, ages 1 week to 90 years, in vaccines targeting more than 10 different diseases.
According to Hancock, in the long run “the best way to beat the coronavirus is through a vaccine.”
“This is a new disease, this is an uncertain science, but I am sure we will throw out everything we have to develop a vaccine,” he added.
The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) also launched the Oxford vaccine on Sunday, saying that ‘ChAdOX1’ is the favorite in the race to tackle the deadly COVID-19 virus.
