Bloomberg - Second-Generation Covid Vaccines Are Built for Impact Over Speed27 Jun 2020 14:10
Web search - Bloomberg Second-Generation Covid Vaccines Are Built for Impact Over Speed
(definitely worth a read)
"‘Is it the tortoise or the hare?’ vaccine expert says"
"Speed isn’t the only thing that matters in the quest for a vaccine to end the Covid-19 pandemic.
They may not cross the finish line first, but dozens of companies and universities still see an opening for inoculations that prevent more infections, provide lasting immunity, protect older and more vulnerable people, yield massive quantities or ship easily throughout the world. Those are benefits the front-runners may not be able to deliver."
"Merck wants a vaccine “to deal not just with the pandemic, but the endemic phase” if, like other coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 becomes established in the human population, CEO Ken Frazier said in an interview.
A couple of months behind Oxford in getting to human tests, Imperial College London is focusing on RNA technology, but with a “self-amplifying” feature aimed at inducing immunity with a much smaller dose.
UK In Fourth Week Of Coronavirus Lockdown As Death Toll Exceeds 10,000 - The Jenner Institute, Oxford.
The building housing the programs led by the University of Oxford and partner AstraZeneca Plc, in Oxford, U.K.Photographer: Visionhaus/Getty Images
“I don’t see the first vaccine to be proven to work as the vaccine that necessarily will be the one that’s used most widely,” said Robin Shattock, a professor at Imperial who’s leading development of a shot. He said he hopes to begin a larger study in October.
Rather than developing its own candidate, the U.K. pharmaceutical giant Glaxo is contributing adjuvants -- substances that enhance the body’s immune response -- to a collaboration with Sanofi and others. That would decrease the amount of vaccine each person needs for immunization, and extend supplies. Sanofi expects to start a study compressing the early and middle stages of clinical trials in September.
The technology could play a key role in protecting the elderly, who are particularly vulnerable to Covid-19, according to Thomas Breuer, chief medical officer of Glaxo’s vaccines unit. Another huge drug company in the second wave of vaccines, Johnson & Johnson, said this month that it will start human trials in the last half of July, about two months earlier than expected.
The company’s goal is to “protect people everywhere from this pandemic,” said Paul Stoffels, J&J’s chief scientific officer."
That same lady from Wellcome institute (Sky news article) is interviewed in this too - Charlie Weller.
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