Corona Update: UK Govt announced the human trial of a Covid-19 vaccine developed at The Oxford University

London: On Tuesday, the UK government announced that the human trial of a potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed by researchers at the Oxford University will begin from Thursday.

“The team has accelerated that trial process, working with the regulator the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency), who have been brilliant. As a result, I can announce that the vaccine from the Oxford project will be trialled in people from this Thursday,” said  Matt Hancock, the UK Health Secretary in the daily press conference at 10 Downing Street.

According to Hancock, in the long run “the best way to defeat coronavirus is through a vaccine”. So, for better research on the same, he said that the government will provide 20 million pounds to the Oxford research team to help fund their clinical trials, with a further 22.5 million pounds for researchers at Imperial College, London.

Scientists at the University of Oxford last week promised a super-fast vaccine during a virtual press conference, saying the vaccine will be available by September. According to lead researcher Professor Sarah Gilbert, their ‘ChAdOx1’ vaccine can work against the coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2. In normal course of time, a vaccine takes anytime between 12-18 months.

What probably separates ChAdOx1 – known as recombinant viral vector vaccine – from the rest is the time it promises to take in order to deliver mass quantities.

Researchers enrolled over 500 healthy volunteers to test if their vaccine can prevent the novel coronavirus.

In late March, Professor Gilbert received 2.2 million pounds as funding from the UK government for vaccine development and trials.

Professor Andrew Pollard, a member of the Oxford team, said: “If you had a sailing wind and absolutely nothing goes wrong in all of that complex technical process and you have all the facilities available, you could have millions of doses by the autumn of this year”.

“This is a new disease, this is uncertain science, but I’m certain that we will throw everything we’ve got at developing a vaccine,” he added.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) also pitched for the Oxford vaccine on Sunday, saying ‘ChAdOX1’ is the frontrunner in the race to take on the deadly COVID-19 virus.