Vaccine for COVID-19 on the horizon? Oxford trials show results
COVID-19 vaccine developed by the esteemed Oxford University in collaboration with AstraZeneca has been found to be safe and has produced a promising immune response in the early clinical trials.
The vaccine, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, did not cause any serious side effects and produced antibody and T-cell responses in all the 1,077 participants it was tried on.
More than 70 per cent of the participants developed fever and headache, which were managed by paracetamol. “We hope this means the immune system will remember the virus so that our vaccine will protect people for an extended period,†Professor Andrew Pollard from the University of Oxford research group said.
“However, we need more research before we can confirm the vaccine effectively protects against COVID-19 infection and for how long the protection lasts,†he added.
This vaccine is made from a genetically engineered virus that causes the common cold in chimpanzees. The BBC reported it is heavily modified so that it cannot cause infections in humans and will make it look more like coronavirus. This was done by transferring the genetic instructions of the coronavirus’ spike protein to the vaccine. COVID-19 uses this spike protein to invade human cells. Hence, the vaccine resembles the coronavirus and our immune system learns how to attack it.
Professor Sarah Gilbert, from the University of Oxford said, "There is still much work to be done before we can confirm if our vaccine will help manage the COVID-19 pandemic, but these early results hold promise."
Safety was the main purpose of this phase. In the next phase, more than 10,000 volunteers will participate in the UK trials followed by a large trial involving 30,000 people in the US, 2,000 in South Africa, and 5,000 in Brazil.
The vaccine could probably be available at the end of this year, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
While AstraZeneca is among the leading vaccine developers who are in mid and late-stage trials, it has said it will not seek to profit from the vaccine during the pandemic.
Elsewhere in the world, US-based Moderna, China’s Sinovac Biotech, and pharmaceutical giants BioNtech and Pfizer are also at the forefront in the development of vaccines for the dreaded virus.
The vaccine, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, did not cause any serious side effects and produced antibody and T-cell responses in all the 1,077 participants it was tried on.
More than 70 per cent of the participants developed fever and headache, which were managed by paracetamol. “We hope this means the immune system will remember the virus so that our vaccine will protect people for an extended period,†Professor Andrew Pollard from the University of Oxford research group said.
“However, we need more research before we can confirm the vaccine effectively protects against COVID-19 infection and for how long the protection lasts,†he added.
This vaccine is made from a genetically engineered virus that causes the common cold in chimpanzees. The BBC reported it is heavily modified so that it cannot cause infections in humans and will make it look more like coronavirus. This was done by transferring the genetic instructions of the coronavirus’ spike protein to the vaccine. COVID-19 uses this spike protein to invade human cells. Hence, the vaccine resembles the coronavirus and our immune system learns how to attack it.
Professor Sarah Gilbert, from the University of Oxford said, "There is still much work to be done before we can confirm if our vaccine will help manage the COVID-19 pandemic, but these early results hold promise."
Safety was the main purpose of this phase. In the next phase, more than 10,000 volunteers will participate in the UK trials followed by a large trial involving 30,000 people in the US, 2,000 in South Africa, and 5,000 in Brazil.
The vaccine could probably be available at the end of this year, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
While AstraZeneca is among the leading vaccine developers who are in mid and late-stage trials, it has said it will not seek to profit from the vaccine during the pandemic.
Elsewhere in the world, US-based Moderna, China’s Sinovac Biotech, and pharmaceutical giants BioNtech and Pfizer are also at the forefront in the development of vaccines for the dreaded virus.