Phase one of the human clinical trials will test the vaccine against COVID19 in healthy volunteers
Researchers from Oxford University have begun testing a COVID-19 vaccine in human volunteers starting from April 23. Phase one of the human clinical trials will test the vaccine against COVID19 in healthy volunteers.
Of around 1,110 people participating in the trial, half will receive the coronavirus vaccine and the other half (the control group) will receive a widely available meningitis vaccine.
The researchers have developed the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine. The vaccine is based on an adenovirus vaccine vector and the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and has been produced in Oxford.
A report by Oxford University states, “ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 is made from a virus (ChAdOx1), which is a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) that causes infections in chimpanzees, that has been genetically changed so that it is impossible for it to grow in humans.”
The availability of the results of the trial will depend on how quickly a small number of participants develop COVID19. “How quickly we reach the numbers required will depend on the levels of virus transmission in the community. If transmission remains high, we may get enough data in a couple of months to see if the vaccine works, but if transmission levels drop, this could take up to 6 months,” states the report by Oxford University.
The vaccine was developed by a team at Oxford University. Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at the Jenner Institute, led the pre-clinical research.
In March, three research projects of Oxford had received funding from the United Kingdom government for research on coronavirus.
