A leading US molecular geneticist has said the UK will be ready to trial a coronavirus vaccine within a few months.
In what may be a major breakthrough in treating affected patient’s Dr Kate Broderick has designed a DNA medicine within three hours and is confident a vaccine will be ready within months.
Dr Broderick told The Scotsman newspaper, “We were targeting early summer for the start of the first clinical trial and even on the basis of that timescale it was really fast.
“But we’ve been really lucky and we’re able to say now that we’re hoping to start that clinical trial in April.
“That’s approximately four months from when we first knew about the virus to getting this into human testing. So, that’s really quite an achievement on our part.”
Dr Broderick is optimistic about starting human trials next month, once she gains approval from the US Food and Agency Administration (FDA).
In an interview with Elle, she explained: “This is really unprecedented, from a timeline perspective. “Sometimes it’s months, even years, before we actually can see the genetic sequence of the virus, which was unfortunately the case with SARS [the pneumonia-like virus that emerged in China in 2002].
“That means you’ve lost months or years on developing a vaccine.
“So, being able to get access to the sequence so quickly is really, really crucial here.”
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