As dozens of research groups around the globe scramble to create a vaccine for coronavirus, the first COVID-19 vaccine trial in the U.S. began Monday, a government official has revealed to the Associated Press.
“The first participant in a clinical trial for a vaccine to protect against the new coronavirus will receive an experimental dose on Monday,” the Associated Press reported Monday, citing a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because “the move has not been publicly announced.”
The testing is being conducted at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle and being funded by the National Institutes of Health, which has partnered with Moderna, Inc. to develop the vaccine.
The initial testing involves 45 young and healthy volunteers, who will be given various doses of shots of the vaccine developed by NIH and Moderna.
The volunteers, researchers say, have no risk of being infected by the virus as the vaccine does not actually contain COVID-19. “The goal is purely to check that the vaccines show no worrisome side effects, setting the stage for larger tests,” AP notes.
While the process is being fast-tracked given the urgency of the pandemic, the vaccine will take anywhere from 12 to 18 months to be fully validated.
As detailed by the Associated Press, the U.S. vaccine trial is one of dozens being conducted in multiple countries, which, importantly, include a wide range of types of vaccines “developed from new technologies that not only are faster to produce than traditional inoculations but might prove more potent.”
Among the potential treatments being explored are temporary vaccines that might provide one or two month-long protection until the full vaccine is validated and released.
A Kansas City-based study conducted by Inovio Pharmaceuticals is also moving toward beginning its testing of a vaccine involving a few dozen volunteers soon, AP notes.
News of the initial testing comes roughly a week after Trump assured Americans that his administration was implementing a plan to create a vaccine.
“America is the Greatest Country in the world. We have the best scientists, doctors, nurses and health care professionals. They are amazing people who do phenomenal things every day,” Trump tweeted last week ahead of a televised address on the pandemic. “Together we are putting into policy a plan to prevent, detect, treat and create a vaccine against CoronaVirus to save lives in America and the world. America will get it done!”
….Together we are putting into policy a plan to prevent, detect, treat and create a vaccine against CoronaVirus to save lives in America and the world. America will get it done!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 11, 2020
Some research groups have already reported positive signs in their testing. As Australia’s News.com.au reported Monday, infectious disease experts at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, say they may have found a treatment method that could possibly “cure” coronavirus.
“University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research director Professor David Paterson told news.com.au today they have seen two drugs used to treat other conditions wipe out the virus in test tubes,” the outlet reported Monday. Paterson told News.com.au that his research group’s use of the anti-malarial drugs Chloroquine and an HIV-suppressing combination of lopinavir/ritonavir appeared to be “a treatment or a cure” for the virus.
“Our doctors were very, very surprised that a HIV drug could actually work against the novel coronavirus and there was a bit of skepticism,” said Paterson. “That first wave of Chinese patients we had (in Australia), they all did very, very well when they were treated with the HIV drug. That’s reassuring … that we’re onto something really good here.”
“What we want to do at the moment is a large clinical trial across Australia, looking at 50 hospitals, and what we’re going to compare is one drug, versus another drug, versus the combination of the two drugs,” said Paterson. The drugs have been proven in the past to be “very well tolerated” and to produce no unexpected side effects.
“We’re not on a flat foot, we can sort of move ahead very rapidly with enrolling Australians in this trial,” said Paterson. “It’s the question we all have – we know it’s coming now, what is the best way to treat it? We want to give Australians the absolute best treatment rather than just someone’s guesses or someone’s anecdotal experiences from a few people.”
Related: Wuhan, China — Ground Zero For Coronavirus — Gets Back To Work In Preview Of What’s To Come In U.S.