New Delhi: The first human trial for the much-awaited novel coronavirus vaccine has begun in the UK from Wednesday. The vaccine which took over three months of research is being developed by the Jenner Institute University of Oxford University.

Named as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, the vaccine is made from a virus (ChAdOx1), which is a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) that causes infections in chimpanzees. It has been genetically modified so that it is unable to grow in humans. According to an official release by the Jenner Institute, the researchers are hoping that ‘by vaccinating with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19,  they can make the body recognize and develop an immune response to the Spike protein that will help stop the SARS-CoV-2 virus from entering human cells and therefore prevent infection.’

A report by BBC has said that two volunteers were injected, and they are the first of more than 800 people recruited for the study. For the trail, a control vaccine has been used to enable a comparison in results. A report by IANS said that half of the volunteers will receive the COVID-19 vaccine while the other half will be injected with the control vaccine which protects against meningitis but not coronavirus. The volunteers will not know which vaccine they are getting, and that information will only be with doctors.



Named as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, the vaccine is made from a virus (ChAdOx1), which is a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) that causes infections in chimpanzees.



Jenner Institute has explained in a statement that to assess whether the vaccine works to protect from COVID-19, the statisticians in the team will compare the number of infections in the control group with the number of infections in the vaccinated group. But the level of community transmission in the community will determine how fast the numbers required for the study is reached. The statement clarifies that if transmission remains high, they may get enough data in a couple of months to see if the vaccine works, but if transmission levels drop, this could take up to 6 months.

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The team at Oxford University is being led by Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at the Jenner Institute who led the pre-clinical research. According to a report by PTI, the UK government has earmarked almost 20million pounds to support the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine program. The report said that the UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that the government will ‘throw everything at’ finding the vaccine against the deadly virus.

While it is speculated that the vaccine will be available by September 2020, the Institute in its statement has said that this is a ‘best case scenario’ and that the ‘best-case timeframes are highly ambitious and subject to change.’