A call has been made for volunteers to take part in the first human trials of a new coronavirus vaccine in Britain.
Imperial College London and University Hospital Southampton asked for people to take part in the study to test if a potential inoculation is effective in tackling the disease.
According to Dailymail, one COVID-19 vaccine developed at the University of Oxford will be trialled on humans in the UK from Thursday this week.
Imperial College London is calling for volunteers to trial its separate vaccine in the weeks ahead. Anyone who is healthy and aged between 18 and 55 can take part at Imperial College London, University Hospital Southampton plus Bristol Children’s Vaccine Centre.
Those who take part in the trial at these centres could be paid up to £190 to £625 reimbursement for their time.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock today said he was ‘throwing everything at’ Britain’s attempt to develop the first vaccine in the world.
The Government will give the scientists in Oxford an extra £20million to help with their trials, Mr Hancock said, and a further £22.5m to a project at Imperial College London.
Despite development of a new vaccine normally being around 18 months, researchers at Oxford believe large-scale production could be under way as early as September – only nine months after the virus came to light in Wuhan, China.
The Oxford vaccine, known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 will be trialled on up to 510 people out of a group of 1,112 aged 18 to 55. It is recruiting volunteers in London, Bristol and Southampton. The Oxford Vaccine Centre is taking part but is not currently recruiting volunteers.
It is the first British-made vaccine to go into real-world trials and carries with it huge hopes that it will provide a key to getting out of lockdown and banishing COVID-19.
Imperial Medicine tweeted today: ‘The Imperial College NHS Trust are looking for healthy volunteers to participate in a #COVID19 #vaccine trial, for which they will receive up to £190-£625 reimbursement for time, travel and contribution to the trial.’
The virus has now infected more than 125,000 people and killed 17,339 in the UK and the UK is on course to end up one of the worst-hit nations in the world.
Mr Hancock said developing vaccines is an ‘uncertain science’ which usually takes years but that manufacturing capacity will be ramped up in case the jab is a success and is suitable to roll out to the public.
The trial will take six months and is limited to a small number of people so scientists can assess whether it is safe and effective without using huge amounts of resources – each patient must return for between four and 11 visits after the jab – and without the risk of large numbers of people being affected if something goes wrong.
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