Scientists at the University of Oxford are developing a vaccine for Covid-19 with human trials starting tomorrow.
The scientists state that the vaccine has an 80% chance of being successful.
Both the Oxford human vaccine trails and another at Imperial College London would both receive £20million of public funds.
Matt Hancock said developing a vaccine is an “uncertain science” but that the two teams were making “rapid progress” and would be backed “to the hilt”.
The team at Oxford; the Jenner Institute Team, want a million doses to be ready to be sent out by September.
The Jenner Institute Team will start production before the trial is complete.
The vaccine has been synthesised from a harmless chimpanzee virus called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19.
The virus will carry part of the Coronavirus.
It has previously shown to demonstrate strong immune responses in other diseases.
Three UK manufacturers are onboard with several others abroad in producing the vaccine.
The Jenner Institute Team’s Professor Sarah Gilbert has stated that she hopes 500 people would be taking part in the trial by the middle of May.
The trial will be a randomised controlled trial where half would receive a different vaccine.
Professor Gilbert said “We will be monitoring them asking them to contact us if they have any symptoms of coronavirus and then we will find out who is getting infected.”
Across the globe, more than 70 vaccines are being developed although the UK, along with China and the US, are the first to start human trials.
