The race to find a coronavirus vaccine has taken on a new urgency. Even after the current crisis abates — and that might not be for many months — scientists know we will be living with Covid-19 for many years.
Preventing people getting infected in the first place is the only long-term solution. So about 35 companies and institutions worldwide are working flat out to develop a vaccine.
Currently out in front is Moderna, a Boston-based biotech company (backed by UK investment) which on Monday began human trials with the mRNA-1273 vaccine on volunteers in Seattle, the worst-hit U.S. city. It was developed in just 42 days with U.S. government help.
A passenger wears a face mask and a protective suit in Terminal 5 of Heathrow Airport, as Britons have been advised against non-essential travel amid the coronavirus outbreak
But others are right behind and yesterday it was announced that a British vaccine will begin testing in the UK from next month. Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, said there had been ‘remarkable’ progress, although an approved vaccine was likely to be at least a year away.
‘Probably only three or four years ago, the standard answer would have been “it takes 20 years to make a vaccine”,’ he said. ‘Now there’s a vaccine in the UK that may go into the clinic for first testing in April.’
Another leading contender is a German vaccine developer, CureVac, which has been forced to deny reports that the Trump administration offered funding in return for giving the U.S. exclusive rights to its vaccine.
Following talks with the company, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said yesterday that CureVac — which has been promised €80 million of EU funding on top of £44 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation —will have a vaccine available this year.
What exactly is a vaccine?
A vaccine works by priming the body’s immune system to recognise and fight pathogens — micro-organisms, including bacteria and viruses, that cause disease. Essentially, the vaccine tricks the body into thinking it is under attack.
Typically with vaccines, a dead or weakened (attenuated) live form of the virus — the ‘antigen’ — is grown inside living cells in a lab, then introduced into the body, usually via an injection.
The immune system recognises the virus (antigen) as ‘hostile’ and makes proteins called antibodies to fight it off.
If the vaccinated person is then infected by the full-blown virus, the immune system instantly recognises and attacks it.
Vaccines are one of the great success stories of modern medicine. But developing them has historically been tedious and often unsuccessful.
A genetic short cut
In the past, scientists had to accumulate large amounts of the virus before they could start developing a vaccine. But genetic technology means we no longer have to wait.
On January 10, scientists in China cloned the new coronavirus that originated in Wuhan and published online a map of its genetic material — all 30,000 biochemical ‘letters’ of its genetic code.
Other scientists around the world were able to ‘grow’ their own synthetic version of the virus using the code in the lab, and start scrutinising it, looking for potential weaknesses.
And instead of the virus having to be painstakingly produced in a laboratory, its lab-manufactured genetic code can in theory be injected into the body, thus triggering an immune response.
Moderna and its partner, the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have identified a section of the genetic code that, incorporated into a vaccine, is most likely to provoke the immune system.
Covid-19 crown of thorns
The coronavirus is named after the crown-like spikes (corona is Latin for crown) protruding from its surface, which ‘grab’ human cells.
Once bound to the cell, the spikes uncoil, puncturing the cell wall so the virus can enter.
In the cell, the virus releases a fragment of genetic material called RNA (ribonucleic acid). The infected cell responds by making proteins that thwart the immune system’s attempts to attack it and, as the infection progresses, the cell machinery is hijacked to start making copies of the virus.
Researchers of coronavirus — there are several strains that infect humans — target the protein molecules that make up the spike.
Breakthroughs
Conventional vaccines have limited effect against viruses such as Ebola and Zika, and possibly Covid-19, that mutate rapidly. New forms of the flu vaccine are developed for each flu season for this reason.
To tackle this, scientists have developed a new approach called ‘platform technologies’. It leads to the production of a basic vaccine which can be swiftly tweaked to combat the genetic information from any newly emerged virus.
Moment anti-virus jabs went on trial
Just a sharp scratch. Jennifer Haller is one of the first people to receive an experimental vaccine for the deadly coronavirus.
The patients taking part in the study, at Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute in Seattle, say the shots were no more painful than an ordinary winter flu vaccine. They will be checked for side-effects and have their blood tested regularly.
Jennifer, 43, said: ‘We all feel so helpless in the face of Covid-19. This is an amazing opportunity for me to do something.’
U.S.-based biotech company Novavax is developing a new vaccine by ‘tweaking’ those developed for two earlier coronaviruses — namely Sars, which raged through China in 2002-04, and Mers, which originated in Saudi Arabia in 2012.
Another groundbreaking approach — one at the heart of both the Moderna and CureVac Covid-19 vaccines — is to develop a vaccine from genetic information contained in what is known as the viruses’ ‘messenger RNA’ (mRNA).
RNA vaccines have several potential benefits, say proponents: they are safer, as they don’t contain live virus; they work more quickly; and they are faster to produce in the laboratory.
However, such vaccines have yet to be officially approved for use on humans.
The clock is ticking
In 2002, when another strain of coronavirus emerged in China, it took 20 months for U.S. health officials to start human testing for a vaccine. Moderna needed six weeks — a record — to get to the same stage.
The response has been swift in part because of the extraordinary nature of the threat — Moderna has bypassed some of the usual protocols. For instance, there have been no tests on animals and regulators have not insisted that Moderna proves the vaccine is safe before trialling it in humans.
Trials of Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccine, which started on Monday, will involve 45 healthy, young volunteers who will be monitored closely for a year. But even if the trials are successful and side-effects are minimal, most experts believe a vaccine won’t be widely available for up to 18 months.
That, however, hasn’t stopped President Trump promising that a Covid-19 vaccine will be ready before the presidential election in November.
Money talks
The first company to manufacture a vaccine could make billions of dollars. Indeed, Moderna’s share price has already gone through the roof.
But vaccine research is a hit-and-miss affair. Research companies spend huge sums — sometimes hundreds of millions of pounds — creating a vaccine, only for a specific virus to completely disappear or mutate so that it is unaffected by the vaccine.
Moderna’s vaccine research was funded by the Oslo-based Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (Cepi), a three-year-old partnership of governments (including the UK), industry and charities set up after the emergence of Sars, Mers, Ebola and Zika led to the deaths of thousands and showed that a new approach was vital to protect world health.
Cepi is sponsoring three other Covid-19 vaccine projects and is about to fund another four, including one at Oxford University. It will cost at least £1.6 billion to develop a vaccine over the next 12 to 18 months.
Join the queue
Even when a vaccine is created, limited production means not everyone will be able to get it.
In a flu pandemic, Britain puts healthcare staff and social workers at the front of the queue, then those at high medical risk, such as children and pregnant women.
With Covid-19, the elderly, who are most vulnerable, are likely to be first in line.
Analysts have estimated that, if successful, Moderna’s vaccine could cost as much as £477 per person. Chief executive Stephane Bancel insists public health and getting ‘a vaccine as fast as we can safely’ is the focus.