Australia's coronavirus vaccine is one step closer to becoming a reality, with pre-clinical trials taking place in the Netherlands. The University of Queensland is playing a major role in it as part of an international collaboration and human trials could even start within a few months.
LEIGH SALES: Professor Young, can you give us a layman's update in terms of where things are up to with the development of a vaccine?
PROF. PAUL YOUNG, UQ VACCINE RESEARCHER: Absolutely. We're still in the preclinical phase. So this is the testing in animal models to ensure that the vaccine that we've developed is safe and shows efficacy.
We have got to tend of one particular study that shows us that it's inducing exactly the response we're anticipating with very potent immunity. So, that's looking good.
We're also entering into toxicity studies, to show that the vaccine is actually safe and we have just delivered our vaccine to our collaborators in The Netherlands to test that it actually can induce protection against challenge, a virus challenge, in an animal model.
So we have pretty much got all of our preclinical studies up and running.
LEIGH SALES: How confident are you that what you have got here will work on humans? It is sounding pretty promising from what you say.
PAUL YOUNG: It is promising. I mean, nothing is ever a guarantee until you do that final analysis and by the way, those human clinical trials are still on track for the end of June or early July.
But what we've seen so far, in our animal studies, would suggest that we're well on track.
LEIGH SALES: We constantly hear about 18 months as the time line for the development of a vaccine. How does that timeline look based on where you're up to now?
PAUL YOUNG: I think under normal circumstances 18 months is still around about right and I should point out, that is 18 months from when we started - so 18 months from January.
And the reason for that is that most vaccine development occurs in a sort of pipeline of activities and it is a linear pipeline. So we have milestones that we need to hit, and each time we hit that milestone with a success, we move on to the next stage, and really that has defined that 18-month timeline.
Traditionally in the past, most vaccines have gone out to five or 10 years in development. So 18 months is still a radically short time.
But what we have done recently is we decided to uncouple the last stage of vaccine development, which is the manufacture and actually see if we could run it side by side with the clinical trials and hopefully, we're going to be able to cut about six months off that timeline.
LEIGH SALES: So does that mean at the same time as the human trials, you would be manufacturing vaccines so if the trials go okay, you are ready to go straight away?
PAUL YOUNG: Correct. That's the whole idea. I mean, it is a hugely risky strategy, risky in the context of financially risky.
We don't want to cut any corners in terms of safety and efficacy of the vaccine itself but what we're trying to do is just ensure that we are ready to go once we know that the vaccine is safe and efficacious.
And that takes us all the way through to even fill and finishing. So we have actually got vaccine in vials ready to deploy.
LEIGH SALES: Well, I'm sure everybody watching has their fingers crossed for you and wishes you all the best.
Thank you very much, Professor.
PAUL YOUNG: Thanks very much Leigh.
Vocabs.
1) Preclinical =
In
drug development, preclinical development, also named preclinical studies and nonclinical studies,
is a stage of research that begins before clinical trials (testing in humans) can begin, and during which important feasibility, iterative testing and drug safety data are collected.
The main goals of pre-clinical studies are to determine the safe dose for
first-in-man study and assess a product's safety profile
Only 10 percent of all drugs started in human clinical trials become
approved drugs.
[3]
2) efficacy
noun
[ U ] formal
UK
/ˈef.ɪ.kə.si/ US
/ˈef.ə.kə.si/
the ability, especially of a medicine or a method of achieving something, to produce the intended result:
They recently ran a series of tests to measure the efficacy of the drug.
efficacy
noun [ U ]
US
/ˈef·ɪ·kə·si/
the quality of being effective; effectiveness:
The drug's efficacy has been questioned by consumer advocates
efficacious
adjective formal
UK
/ˌef.ɪˈkeɪ.ʃəs/ US
/ˌef.əˈkeɪ.ʃəs/
able to produce the intended result
Synonym
effective (SUCCESSFUL)
3) potent
adjective
US
/ˈpoʊ·tənt/
powerful, persuasive, or effective:
This is the most potent headache remedy you can get without a prescription.
Her voice has been a potent force on concert stages for more than 30 years.
4) tend verb (BE LIKELY)
B2 [ I ]
to be likely to behave in a particular way or have a particular characteristic:
[ + to infinitive ] We tend to get cold winters and warm, dry summers in this part of the country.
5) uncouple
verb [ T ]
UK
/ʌnˈkʌp.əl/ US
/ʌnˈkʌp.əl/
to separate two things that are joined together:
The engine had been uncoupled from the rest of the train.
6) cut corners
to do something in the easiest, cheapest, or fastest way:
I don’t like to cut corners when I have company for dinner.
