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| Covid-19 Race |
The race to develop an effective vaccine against the novel corona-virus gathered pace this week, as clinical trials on humans were approved in Germany and launched in the UK.
Though there are now around 150 development projects
worldwide, the German and British plans are among only five clinical trials on
humans which have been approved across the globe.
In Britain, volunteers in a trial at the University of
Oxford are set to be given on Thursday the first dose of a potential vaccine
based on a virus found in chimpanzees.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, German regulatory body PEI
green-lighted the country's first trials on human volunteers for a vaccine
developed by German firm Biotech and US giant Pfizer.
The Oxford trial, run by the university's Jenner Institute,
will involve 510 volunteers aged between 18 and 55 in the first phase.
Research director Professor Sarah Gilbert estimated that it
has around an 80 percent chance of being successful.
The institute aims to develop a million doses of the vaccine
by September, so as to distribute it as quickly as possible after approval.
The Oxford trial is part of a nationwide effort in the UK
which since Friday has been spearheaded by a government task force.
In Germany, meanwhile, the PEI said its approval of the
Biontech trial marked a "significant step" in making a vaccine
"available as soon as possible".
In the first phase, it will see "200 healthy volunteers
aged between 18 and 55 years" vaccinated with variants of the vaccine,
while the second phase could see the inclusion of volunteers who belonged to
high-risk groups.
On Wednesday, Biontech CEO Ugur Sahin told a press
conference that tests would begin "at the end of April".
He added that the firm expected to have collected first data
by "the end of June or beginning of July".
Biontech also said that they and Pfizer hoped to gain
regulatory approval soon to test the same vaccine candidate in the US.
The PEI meanwhile claimed that "further clinical trials
of COVID-19 vaccine candidates will start in Germany in the next few
months".
Normalcy
There are currently no approved vaccines or medication for
the COVID-19 disease, which has killed more than 170,000 people worldwide and
infected more than two million.
Experts estimate that it will take at least 12 to 18 months
to develop a new vaccine.
Last week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a
vaccine was the only thing to return "normalcy" to the world, and
called for development projects to be accelerated.
A UN resolution adopted on Monday, meanwhile, called for
"equitable, efficient and timely" access to any vaccine that might be
developed.
Aside from Biontech and Oxford, three other clinical trials
on humans have been approved worldwide since mid-March, with Chinese and US
developers among the first to move.
Beijing approved the first trial for a vaccine developed by
the military-backed Academy of Military Medical Sciences and Hong Kong-listed
biotech firm CanSino Bio on March 16.
That day the US drug developer Moderna said it had begun
human tests for their vaccine with the US National Institutes of Health.
Another US lab, San Diego-based Inovio Pharmaceuticals,
began first phase human trials on April 6.
Yet while Biontech hailed what it called a "global
development program" on Wednesday, the search for a vaccine has also been
a cause of friction between countries.
Last month a newspaper report alleged that the US had
attempted to buy exclusive rights to vaccine research being carried out by
CureVac, another German firm.
Though CureVac and US officials dismissed it as unfounded, the
newspaper report caused outrage in Berlin, and prompted Economy Minister Peter
Altmaier to declare that "Germany is not for sale".
