Government scientists and pharmaceutical
companies in Australia, China and the United States are developing a vaccine
against the novel coronavirus that has infected over 6,000 people worldwide and
killed more than 130 people.
But even if
researchers develop a vaccine that a team in Hong Kong has already tested, the
drug has to undergo animal testing, human clinical trials, and regulatory
approvals before it can be launched on the process, which can take at least several
months and possibly up to will take several years.
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness
Innovations (CEPI), a public-private organization founded in 2017 to develop
vaccines against epidemics, announced last week that it was doing the work of
two U.S. pharmaceutical companies, Moderna Therapeutics and Inovio
Pharmaceuticals, with the University of Queensland and the U.S. National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop vaccines for the novel
coronavirus known as 2019-nCoV.
“Everyone is
trying to move as quickly as possible,” said Jacqueline Shea, chief operating
officer at Inovio.
The new virus,
which health officials suspect has broken out in a now closed market in Wuhan,
belongs to the family of corona viruses, which include the common cold virus,
as well as rarer and more deadly viruses such as severe acute respiratory
syndrome (SARS) and MERS virus (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome).
Existing data on
the SARS and MERS outbreaks and knowledge of the spike protein characteristic
of coronaviruses could help scientists develop a vaccine for 2019-nCoV. For
example, the experimental vaccine developed by researchers from the University
of Hong Kong (HKU) was made by modifying part of the existing flu vaccine.
But even if
scientists develop a vaccine, clinical trials and regulatory approvals are
likely to postpone the drug’s release date by a year or more. The HKU team did
not specify a specific time frame, but said animal testing could take months
and human clinical trials “could take at least a year, even if accelerated.”
Johnson &
Johnson’s managing director estimated that it would take eight to 12 months for
the company to reach the human clinical stage.
During the SARS
outbreak, which killed nearly 800 people and infected more than 8,000
worldwide, scientists began developing a vaccine, a project that was slowed
down by the Chinese government’s initial concealment of the epidemic.
The scientists eventually
developed a SARS vaccine, but it was never released. When it reached human
testing, which lasted about 20 months, health officials had contained the
outbreak. A vaccine for MERS is still in development and has only been tested
on animals so far.
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