There are more than 70 groups worldwide rushing to develop a vaccine against COVID-19, including Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and BioNTech, Novavax and many others. One of the groups that appears to be ahead of the race isn’t a commercial biopharma company, but Oxford University’s Jenner Institute. Their primary focus is vaccine development and they had already tested a vaccine for an earlier coronavirus last year, showing it was not harmful to humans.
This head start has them expecting to launch a clinical trial of more than 6,000 people in May, showing not only that their COVID-19 vaccine is safe—typically the goal of smaller Phase I clinical trials—but effective, the goal of larger Phase II and Phase III clinical trials. With emergency approval, the Oxford University researchers believe they could have a few million doses of the vaccine available by September if it is proven effective.
Their virus has been tested in six rhesus macaque monkeys at the National Institutes of Health’s Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Montana, that were then exposed to large volumes of the virus causing COVID-19. More than 28 days later, all six were still healthy.
Monkey research doesn’t guarantee it will work as well in humans, but it is one of the first indicators...
Full text at GMPnews.Net