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HomeNewsOxford University Begins Its Coronavirus Vaccine Clinical Trials On Humans

Oxford University Begins Its Coronavirus Vaccine Clinical Trials On Humans

Oxford University Coronavirus Vaccine
Clinical Trials on Humans Begins

Based on an adenovirus vaccine vector and the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, Oxford University developed a COVID-19 vaccine, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19. It is now ready to enter clinical trials on humans.

The world’s top university Oxford has announced its vaccine is entering Phase 1 clinical trials in humans, giving some hope amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The University of Oxford in a press release stated that on Friday, the university researchers working on the COVID-19 vaccine development have started screening healthy volunteers (aged 18-55) for the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine trial in England’s Thames Valley, which is yet to come. The vaccine is in production already by still it will not be ready for some weeks.

When compared to Moderna’s RNA vaccine, the first to enter Phase 1, Oxford’s ‘viral vectored’ technology is more established, although it is the second vaccine to this Phase. Currently, for human use, no RNA vaccines are licensed.

The preclinical work on the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine is being conducted in collaboration with several partners including the ‘CSIROxbridge Consortium’ led by Indian origin Principal Investigator Professor S.S. Vasan of Australia’s science agency CSIRO and Rocky Mountain Laboratories (NIH/NIAID), according to details published by the University.

Prof Vasan told, “In humanity’s fight against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, this is a significant development.”

The world body coordinating the efforts against Covid, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), has selected and funded Oxford and Moderna and six more candidates, Novavax, Institut Pasteur, Inovio, CureVac, and the universities of Hong Kong and Queensland, in total eight candidates.

According to the latest issue of the Nature Biotechnology journal, there are 14 other institutions other than the eight CEPI-funded vaccines, including two from India: Pune-based Serum Institute of India and Ahmedabad based Zydus Cadila, which are engaged in developing a vaccine for this infectious disease.

Healthy volunteers between the age of 18-55 years will be enrolled by the team at Oxford. They will be the first humans to test the new vaccine, called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 if they pass the screening.

Valuable information on the safety aspects of the vaccine and its ability to generate an immune response against the virus can be obtained from the trial.

Through the university’s press release, they have invited interested individuals to register on its website to volunteer to participate in the COVID-19 vaccine trials.

There will be around 510 volunteers recruited who will receive either a control injection for comparison or the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine in this trial, a collaboration between the University’s Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group clinical teams.

UK regulators and ethical reviewers have approved the trail. To get the vaccine ready for use in the trial, which includes further preclinical investigations and the production of a larger number of doses of the vaccine, the researchers are working as quickly as possible.

The Director of the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, Professor Adrian Hill said, “During outbreaks such as Ebola outbreak in 2014 in West Africa, the oxford team had the exceptional experience of rapid vaccine response. At an unprecedented rate, vaccines are being progressed and are designed from scratch. Assessing the feasibility of vaccination against COVID-19 in the upcoming trial will be critical and there could be an early development with its success.”

Chief Investigator on the study, Professor Andrew Pollard said, “To find out whether the new vaccine being developed at Oxford University works or not, the first step is starting the clinical trials by which we can know if this pandemic coronavirus that is sweeping the globe could be controlled using the vaccine.

Source

Author : Prathibha HC
Shekhar
Shekhar
Shekhar Suman is the Co-founder of BioTecNika Info Labs Pvt. Ltd. He is an Entrepreneur, Writer, Public Speaker, and a Motivational Coach. In his career, he has mentored more than 100,000+ students toward success in the Biopharma Industry. He heads the BioTecNika Group, which comprises BioTecNika.com, BioTecNika.org, and Rasayanika.com. An avid reader and listener who is passionate about BioSciences. Today Biotecnika is India's largest Biotech Career portal, with over 5 Million subscribers from academia & Industry. It's ranked among the top 50 websites worldwide in the Biology category.
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