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By Kate Kelland
LONDON, June 15 (Reuters) - Scientists at Imperial College
London will start the first clinical trials of a potential
COVID-19 vaccine this week with more than 45 million pounds
($56.50 million) in backing from the UK government and
philanthropic donors.
The trials are the first human tests of a new technology
which the researchers say could transform vaccine development by
enabling rapid responses to emerging diseases such as the
COVID-19 infection caused by the new coronavirus.
Robin Shattock, a professor at Imperial's department of
infectious disease who is leading this work, said that rather
than using a part of the virus, as many vaccines do, this
potential vaccine uses synthetic strands of the virus' genetic
material - RNA - which are packaged inside tiny fat droplets.
When injected, it instructs muscle cells to produce virus
proteins to protect against future infection. In animal tests,
the vaccine was shown to be safe and showed "encouraging signs
of an effective immune response", Shattock's team said in a
statement.
Around 300 healthy volunteers will receive two doses of the
vaccine in the initial human trials to test whether it is safe
in people and whether it produces an effective immune response
against COVID-19. If it shows promise, larger trials with around
6,000 people would be planned for later this year.
More than 100 potential COVID-19 vaccines are in development
around the world, including several already in human trials from
AstraZeneca, Pfizer, BioNtech, Johnson
& Johnson, Merck, Moderna, Sanofi
and CanSino Biologics.
The Imperial trials come after the team won £41 million
pounds in funding from the UK government plus £5 million in
philanthropic donations.
Business secretary Alok Sharma, said Imperial's was "one of
the world's front-runners" and had Britain's full backing.
($1 = 0.7965 pounds)
(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
