London accelerates, human vaccine test since Thursday

2020-04-21T20:58:12.066Z

The United Kingdom launches headlong on the development of a vaccine against the new coronavirus. Researchers from the University of Oxford will start testing a Covid-19 vaccine in humans as early as Thursday: the first doses will be given to volunteers. "In normal times, reaching this stage would have taken years," said Health Minister Matt Hancock. The vaccine is the result of an Anglo-Italian partnership born from the collaboration between Advent-IRBM, a small bioengineering company, located in Pomezia, just outside Rome and the Jenner Institute of the University of Oxford. The team has accelerated research in recent weeks on the wave of the growing number of deaths and infections from new coronavirus. The goal of the British government is to have a vaccine ready for autumn, to be able to vaccinate healthcare workers and law enforcement officers with millions of doses as early as September. In recent days, the team manager, virologist Sarah Gilbert, said she was optimistic about the results of the studies and the fact that it will work: "Personally I am very confident. I think, with a good degree of optimism, that there is a good chance that it will work ". Negotiations would also be underway with several governments for a major investment that would further accelerate its industrial production. The British health minister however announced that he had made available £ 20m (€ 22.60m) for the Oxford team and an additional £ 22m (€ 24.90m) for another vaccine project. developed at Imperial College London. "We will give them all the resources they need to maximize their chances of success as soon as possible," said Hancock. While remembering that the vaccine development process is made "trial and error", despite the uncertainties, "the advantages of being the first country in the world to develop a vaccine - he explained - are so enormous that we put all the resources we can ". In this way, "if one of these two vaccines works and is safe, we can make it available to the British as soon as humanly possible."