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LONDON, April 17 (Reuters) - Britain launched a new
coronavirus taskforce on Friday to support efforts to make a
vaccine available to the public as quickly as possible.
The government said 21 new research projects would get
funding from a 14 million pound investment pool "to rapidly
progress treatments and vaccines".
The taskforce will include AstraZeneca and research
charity the Wellcome Trust.
A million doses of a potential COVID-19 vaccine being
developed by British scientists at Oxford University are already
being manufactured, even before trials prove whether the shot is
effective, the team said on Friday.
"UK scientists are working as fast as they can to find a
vaccine that fights coronavirus, saving and protecting people’s
lives. We stand firmly behind them in their efforts," business
minister Alok Sharma said.
"The Vaccine Taskforce is key to coordinating efforts to
rapidly accelerate the development and manufacture of a
potential new vaccine, so we can make sure it is widely
available to patients as soon as possible."
A vaccine against the novel coronavirus is seen as key to
defeating the COVID-19 pandemic which has killed over 100,000
globally and delivered a large blow to the global economy.
But timeframes for its development vary.
While the Oxford scientists said their vaccine would be
available by September, GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Sanofi
SA, who earlier this week said they would develop a
vaccine, forecast that it would not be available until the
second half of 2021.
Britain's government said it wanted a vaccine to be
available as quickly as possible but did not give more details
on an expected timetable for development.
The taskforce will be led by Chief Scientific Adviser
Patrick Vallance and Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor
Jonathan van Tam, and will aim to make sure regulations and
manufacturing capacity are such that the production of a vaccine
can be quickly scaled up when one is successfully developed.
Britain said it would identify ways to fast-track clinical
trials and also continue to support international efforts to
find a vaccine.
Among the projects to receive funding include a test of a
vaccine at Imperial College, London that aims for the body to
produce more protective antibodies; Public Health England's
efforts to develop a new antibody to protect from COVID-19 and a
University of Oxford trial of an anti-malarial drug to see if it
could prove effective against COVID-19.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Stephen Addison)
