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* Imperial College backed by UK government and donors
* Clinical trials of potential COVID-19 vaccine set to start
* The trials are the first human tests of a new technology
(Adds comment from immunology expert)
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 British 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, 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.
About 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 about
6,000 people would be set up 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.
Doug Brown, chief executive of the British Society for
Immunology, welcomed the addition of Imperial's vaccine and said
that having a wide range of approaches increases the chance of
success.
"This vaccine candidate...differs from other ongoing trials
in that it uses novel RNA technology," he said.
The Imperial team won £41 million pounds in funding from the
UK government and received £5 million in philanthropic
donations.
($1 = 0.7965 pounds)
(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Andrew Heavens and
Timothy Heritage)
