COVID-19 vaccine by September? Oxford group leaps ahead

New Delhi, Apr 28: Oxford's Jenner Institute, which has taken a lead in clinical trials of the vaccine, is now hoping that first few million doses of the vaccine could be made available by September 2020.

Scientists at Jenner Institute have made a promising start on developing the vaccine, having already proved in earlier trials that similar immunisation was safe for humans, The New York Times (NYT) reported.

The institute has scheduled tests for the COVID-19 vaccine, involving over 6,000 people by May-end, "hoping to show not only that it is safe, but also that it works."

In March, several rhesus macaque monkeys were inoculated with small doses of the Oxford vaccine by a team of researchers at Montana's National Institutes of Health.

"The animals were then exposed to heavy quantities of the virus that is causing the pandemic -- exposure that had consistently sickened other monkeys in the lab. But more than 28 days later, all six were healthy," Dr Vincent Munster, the researcher who conducted the test, was quoted as saying by NYT.

The NYT report, however, stressed that immunity in monkeys does not mean that the vaccine will provide the same degree of protection for humans.