Coronavirus vaccine might be ready in first half of 2021 if things go ‘extraordinarily well’, says Imperial College professor

Researchers at Imperial aiming to start human trials for vaccine candidate on 15 June

A Covid-19 vaccine being developed by scientists at Imperial College London could be ready and available in the first half of 2021, according to the team’s leading professor.

The university is working on one of two bids in the UK to develop a vaccine, along with Oxford University’s Jenner Institute.

Whereas the Oxford vaccine has already entered into the latter stages of the clinical pathway, researchers at Imperial aim to start their own human trials on 15 June.

A further trial involving 6,000 people is planned for October and if these prove successful, Imperial hopes the vaccine could be distributed in the UK and abroad early next year.

Professor Robin Shattock said his team’s vaccine would not be available by Christmas but “in the first two quarters of next year if things go extraordinarily well”.

“We have spent an intense six months to fast-track our vaccine to the clinic,” he said. ”Now we are ready to combat the virus through our clinical trials.”

Professor Shattock said that his team had been collaborating with scientists at Oxford University in sharing data and results.

“We are often pitted against each other or seen to be in a race against each other, but actually we are collaborating very closely, exchanging material, and the two approaches may well be able to be used together, in a prime/boost [primary and booster jab] approach,” he told a Royal Society of Medicine webinar on Tuesday.

“We are not trying to beat each other. We are trying to work together and make a vaccine available in the fastest possible time.”

It was announced this week that Professor Shattock’s team has specifically developed a RNA vaccine, which delivers genetic instructions to the body’s cells to make the “spike” protein seen on the surface of coronavirus.

The presence of this protein provokes an immune response, offering protection against Covid-19.

No virus is needed to make a batch of an RNA vaccine, making it safer to manufacture. Only small quantities of virus are used for gene sequencing and vaccine testing.

Asked when his vaccine might be ready, Professor Shattock said: “We hope next year but there is no ­certainty (a) that any individual vaccine will work and (b) that the data will be robust enough for it to be licensed.

“At the moment there is a lot of speculation and we really need to deal with facts and data rather than over-promising and under-delivering.”

He said the first vaccines to emerge would be unlikely to offer full protection but may at least reduce the severity of the illness.

Professor Shattock’s team is continuing to rely on public funding for its research. Last month, it received a further £18.5m from the government.

Oxford University’s Jenner Institute, a vaccine research body, has meanwhile entered into a private-public partnership with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca to accelerate the development of its vaccine.

The candidate has already passed the initial Phase 1 stage, which verifies its safety, and last month researchers begin recruiting 10,000 people, including adults over 56 and children aged five to 12, for Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the trials.

It was also announced last week that AstraZeneca had reached a £586m agreement with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, and the Serum Institute of India to support the manufacturing, procurement and distribution of 300 million doses of the vaccine, with delivery starting by the end of the year.

Separately, Imperial College London has formed a social enterprise called VacEquity Global Health to help develop its vaccine.

Imperial and VGH will waive royalties for the UK and low-income countries “and charge only modest cost-plus prices to sustain the enterprise’s work, accelerate global distribution and support new research”, the university said.