Oxford vaccine clinical trials are 'going well'

LONDON

: Clinical trials to test Oxford University’s new vaccine for Covid-19 are “progressing very well”, the head of

the Oxford Vaccine Group

(OVG) said on Friday. The trials have moved to the

second phase

of the study in which the vaccine will now be assessed in more than 10,000 older people and children.


Professor Andrew Pollard, head of OVG, said: “The clinical studies are progressing very well and we are now initiating studies to evaluate how well the vaccine induces immune responses in older adults.”

Phase one, which began in April, involved just over 1,000 adult volunteers aged 18–55, being inoculated, following promising results on six monkeys in the US in late March.

Phase two involves expanding the age range of people — the vaccine is assessed in to children aged 5–12, adults aged 56–69, and those aged above 70 — so that researchers can assess if there is a variation in how well the immune system responds in older people or children.

This second phase will enrol up to 10,260 adults and children, who will be vaccinated at multiple sites in

Britain

throughout May and June.

In each phase half the participants are being given the new vaccine called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19. A meningitis vaccine is being used as an active control vaccine for the other half of volunteers. Both produce similar side effects so that participants remain blinded to which vaccine they have had.

To assess whether the vaccine works, statisticians will compare the number of infections in the control group with the number of infections in the vaccinated group. It is therefore necessary for a small number of participants to develop Covid-19. Recruitment of those who have a higher chance of being exposed to the virus, such as frontline healthcare workers and public-facing key workers, is being prioritised.

Oxford has sealed a deal with pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca for the manufacturing and commercialisation of the vaccine. AstraZeneca is aiming to produce 30 million doses by September if the trials are successful. The UK will have access to the vaccines first, but business secretary PIO Alok Sharma has promised it will be sold to developing countries “at the lowest possible cost”.

Phase three of the study will assess how the vaccine works in a large number of people over the age of 18.