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Oxford University: Tests Show Our Vaccine May Be Ready By September

   DailyWire.com
A deserted view of All Souls College after university students have been sent home and the tourist are staying away Oxford's streets and colleges of learning are deserted during the Coronavirus lockdown on April 03, 2020 in Oxford, United Kingdom.
Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

According to Oxford University scientists at the Jenner Institute assiduously working on developing a vaccine for the coronavirus COVID-19, the newest developments point to a strong possibility that they may have a vaccine ready by September, rather than sometime in 2021.

The New York Times reports, “Most other teams have had to start with small clinical trials of a few hundred participants to demonstrate safety. But scientists at the university’s Jenner Institute had a head start on a vaccine, having proved in previous trials that similar inoculations — including one last year against an earlier coronavirus — were harmless to humans.”

Thus the Oxford team will be able to test over 6,000 people by the end of next month; last week a Phase I clinical trial with 1,100 people was initiated; next month a combined Phase II and Phase III trial involving another 5,000 will follow.

Emilio Emini, a director of the vaccine program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, enthused, “It is a very, very fast clinical program.” He also cautioned that more than one vaccine would be necessary, as the effects of one vaccine may vary due to various age groups. But he also pointed out that even if the vaccine proves successful, “This big U.K. study is actually going to translate to learning a lot about some of the others as well.”

Dr. Vincent Munster, who conducted the test along with other scientists at the National Institutes of Health’s Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Montana in March said that all six rhesus macaque monkeys who were inoculated with the Oxford vaccine, then exposed to heavy doses of the virus were healthy 28 days later, adding, “The rhesus macaque is pretty much the closest thing we have to humans.”

Munster said the next steps are to share the finding with other scientists, then let a peer-reviewed journal examine them.

The Times explained, “The institute’s effort against the coronavirus uses a technology that centers on altering the genetic code of a familiar virus. A classic vaccine uses a weakened version of a virus to trigger an immune response. But in the technology that the institute is using, a different virus is modified first to neutralize its effects and then to make it mimic the one scientists seek to stop — in this case, the virus that causes Covid-19. Injected into the body, the harmless impostor can induce the immune system to fight and kill the targeted virus, providing protection.”

Prof. Adrian Hill, the Jenner Institute’s director, noted that manufacturing companies across Europe and Asia are preparing to produce billions of doses of the Oxford vaccine if it proves successful, and that none of them had exclusive marketing rights, yet no North American manufacturer has currently signed on. He surmised that one possible reason may be because they typically demand exclusive worldwide rights before they will invest in a medicine. He commented, “I personally don’t believe that in a time of pandemic there should be exclusive licenses. So we are asking a lot of them. Nobody is going to make a lot of money off this.”

Hill stated that success would be achieved if up to 12 participants who take a placebo contract the virus while one or two given the inoculation remain virus-free. He asserted, “Then we have a party and tell the world,” adding that the placebo-takers would hen immediately receive the vaccine.

On Sunday, Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of Serum Institute India (SII), the world’s largest producer of vaccines, stated, “Our team has been working closely with Dr. Hill from Oxford University, and we are expecting to initiate production of the vaccine in 2-3 weeks and produce 5 million doses per month for the first six months, following which we hope to scale up production to 10 million doses per month, according to the Deccan Chronicle.

Poonwalla continued, “We expect the (COVID-19) vaccine to be out in the market by September-October, only if the trials are successful with the requisite safety and assured efficacy. We will be starting trials in India for this vaccine hopefully over the next 2-3 weeks’ time … Following that, we have undertaken the decision to initiate manufacturing at our own risk. The decision has been solely taken to have a jump-start on manufacturing, to have enough doses available, if the clinical trials prove successful … Keeping the current situation in mind, we have funded this endeavor at a personal capacity and hopefully will be able to enlist the support of other partners to further scale-up vaccine production.”

He concluded, “We will not patent Serum’s vaccine for COVID-19 and will make it available for all to produce and sell, not just in India but across the world … I hope that whichever company develops the vaccine does not get it patented and makes it available based on royalties or a commercial understanding to as many manufacturers across the world to make billions of dosages at a fast pace.”

 

 

 

 

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