In the worldwide race to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, the Oxford University laboratory seems to be on the best possible path.?
According to reports,?Six macaque monkeys that were given a trial vaccine from the University of Oxford are now?coronavirus-free 28 days after sustained exposure to the virus.?
The?rhesus macaque monkeys were inoculated with the vaccine candidate at the National Institutes of Health¡¯s Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Montana last month, according to?The New York Times.
"The animals were then exposed to heavy quantities of the virus that is causing the pandemic ¡ª exposure that had consistently sickened other monkeys in the lab. But more than 28 days later all six were healthy," said Vincent Munster, the researcher who conducted the test told the New York Times.
"The rhesus macaque is pretty much the closest thing we have?to humans," Vincent Munster, the head of the Virus Ecology?Unit at the laboratory, told the Times.
The Jenner Institute, working as part of the Oxford Vaccine, is leading the global race for the vaccine. The Oxford scientists now say that with an emergency approval from regulators, the first few million doses of their vaccine could be available by September.?The vaccine given to the macaques is called hAdOx1 nCoV-19.
It's a fact that Humans and macaques share 93% of the same DNA, but that does not mean that the vaccine will have the same effects on humans as it does for the monkeys. 'The monkey results are the latest indication that Oxford¡¯s accelerated venture is emerging as a bellwether,' reports the Times.?
Sinovac Biotec, a Beijing-based company is also hunting for a vaccine to the coronavirus. It found last week that its vaccine was also effective in macaques. Human trials have now begun.
The Serum Institute of India, the world¡¯s largest maker of vaccines by volume, said that it plans this year to produce up to 60 million doses of a potential vaccine developed by the University of Oxford, which is under clinical trial in Britain.
While the vaccine candidate, called ¡°ChAdOx1 nCoV-19¡±, is yet to be proven to work against Covid-19, Serum decided to start manufacturing it as it had shown success in animal trials and had progressed to tests on humans, Serum Chief Executive Adar Poonawalla said.
Reuters?
¡°They are a bunch of very qualified, great scientists [at Oxford] ¡ That¡¯s why we said we will go with this and that¡¯s why we are confident,¡± Poonawalla told Reuters in a phone interview.?
Poonawalla said he hoped trials of the Oxford vaccine, due to finish in about September, would be successful. Oxford scientists said last week the main focus of initial tests was to ascertain not only whether the vaccine worked but that it induced good immune responses and no unacceptable side effects.
Serum, owned by the Indian billionaire Cyrus Poonawalla, plans to make the vaccine at its two manufacturing plants in the western city of Pune, aiming to produce up to 400 million doses next year if all goes well, Poonawalla said.
All Inputs: Reuters/New York Times