United Kingdom begins human trials for vaccine

London: Clinical researchers began human trials this week of a new coronavirus vaccine developed by scientists at Imperial College London.

The study, which involves a set of people being immunised with the vaccine, will be the first time it has been trialled in humans and will test whether it is well-tolerated and produces an effective immune response against COVID-19.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed thousands of lives and had a huge impact on daily life. In the long-term, a viable vaccine could be vital for protecting the most vulnerable, enabling restrictions to be eased and helping people to get back to normal life," said Professor Robin Shattock, from the Department of Infectious Disease at Imperial who is leading the work.

"From a scientific perspective, new technologies mean we have been able to get moving on a potential vaccine with unprecedented speed. We've been able to produce a vaccine from scratch and take it to human trials in just a few months – from code to candidate – which has never been done before with this type of vaccine.

"If our approach works and the vaccine provides effective protection against disease, it could revolutionise how we respond to disease outbreaks in future," he said.

The researchers expect to publish findings once the safety data are available and are hopeful a viable vaccine could be available in the first half of 2021. They say the vaccine has undergone rigorous pre-clinical safety tests and in animal studies it has been shown to be safe and produced encouraging signs of an effective immune response.

Imperial College London said its vaccine candidate is being developed and trialled as a result of a 41-million pounds UK government funding and a further 5 million pounds in philanthropic donations.