Preparation for a mystery “Disease X” that could cause a global pandemic helped Oxford researchers create a “plug and play” approach that led to a successful COVID-19 vaccine.
On Monday, Oxford University’s Jenner Institute announced results from phase three trials of a coronavirus vaccine developed with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca ranged from an average efficacy of 70 per cent to up to 90 per cent.
Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group said the results marked an “exciting day” and showed the group had found “an effective vaccine that will save many lives.”
“Excitingly, we’ve found that one of our dosing regimens may be around 90 per cent effective and if this dosing regimen is used, more people could be vaccinated with planned vaccine supply. Today’s announcement is only possible thanks to the many volunteers in our trial, and the hard working and talented team of researchers based around the world,” he said.
Professor Sarah Gilbert, a professor of vaccinology at Oxford, who has worked flat out on the vaccine candidate since January, said “the announcement today takes us another step closer to the time when we can use vaccines to bring an end to the devastation caused by SARS-CoV-2.
“We will continue to work to provide the detailed information to regulators. It has been a privilege to be part of this multinational effort which will reap benefits for the whole world.”
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The candidate still has to pass regulatory approval, however the origins of the new vaccine can be traced back to the Ebola outbreak of 2014 in which 11,000 people died.
The global response was seen as lacking, and ever since scientists have been working on a plan to tackle “Disease X” when it came along.
For Prof Gilbert, that moment was in January 2020 when reports of a new virus emerged from Wuhan in China.
Her team sprung into action using ChAdOx1 vaccine technology – short for Chimpanzee Adenovirus Oxford One which is a modified chimpanzee virus that is not harmful for humans – and had already been used to fight other diseases such as flu, Zika and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers).
This gave them a head start in a process that can take decades. Prof Gilbert described the move as a “plug and play” approach, as the team were able to use their existing technology with information from COVID-19, in order to make something to work with.
“We drop it in and off we go,” Prof Gilbert told the BBC.
“I thought it might only have been a project, we’d make the vaccine and the virus would fizzle out. But it didn’t.”
Experience with Sars in 2002 and Mers in 2012 also meant scientists knew how the coronavirus behaved, including the critical “spike protein” which it uses to get into the body’s cells.
“If this had been a completely unknown virus, then we’d have been in a very different position,” lead investigator Prof Pollard said.
The seriousness of the pandemic and commitment to finding a vaccine around the world helped expedite processes that can typically take years such as funding, grant approval and finding participants for trials.
AstraZeneca also agreed to start on manufacturing and distribution chains before the vaccine was proved effective – something which is done at financial risk to the company.
Speaking about the discovery on Monday, Prof Gilbert said early data showed a reduction in transmission from asymptomatic people and there were no severe cases in any of those who had taken the vaccine.
Interestingly, the 90 per cent efficacy found in those who received a half-dose in an initial jab followed by a second full dose suggests delivering the dosage in this way could “prime” the immune system for a better response.
“It may be because that better mimics what happens in a real infection,” Prof Gilbert said, explaining it could be that it is a “better way of kicking the immune system into gear”.
The results come following successful trials at Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, which show efficacy rates around 95 per cent based on a new form of mRNA technology.
However the cold storage requirements of the US-based vaccines could prove more difficult in terms of manufacturing and distribution.
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The Oxford vaccine candidate can be stored at ordinary fridge temperatures, leading to hopes it could be distributed using the existing global supply chain, much like the flu vaccine is today.
Despite the competition, Prof Gilbert is adamant that having several options is a good thing for the world.
“We’ve always known that we will need multiple vaccines,” she said. “It’s really excellent to see the high efficacy that we’re now getting.
“We’re not thinking about vaccinations working in terms of one person at a time. We have to think about vaccinating communities, populations.”
“The three of us don’t even have enough capacity for the world … so there’s no competition really.”
Health and Fitness | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site