Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

TWO companies with strong Cork connections are among the pharmaceutical giants racing to find a vaccine for the coronavirus.

Global corporations Novartis and Pfizer, which employ around 4,000 people in Ireland and have Cork bases, have joined the worldwide war on the pandemic.

Novartis has pledged to donate 130 million hydroxychloroquine tablets free to fight Covid-19 - the drug is used to combat malaria and there are hopes it will also hold the key to fighting coronavirus.

Preliminary trials are being held using the drug and the move by Novartis, alongside other pharmaceutical companies, was welcomed by the world of medical science The 130 million tablets will be supplied by the end of May and the company said it will explore "further scaling of capacity to increase supply".

In a statement announcing the move, Novartis Global Head of Strategy, Stephen Moran, said the company is also providing $20million grants to support public health initiatives designed to help communities manage the challenges posed by Covid-19.

There are no vaccines or treatments approved for the disease, but there is currently a 1,500-person trial, led by the University of Minnesota in the U.S, to see whether hydroxychloroquine can prevent or reduce the severity of COVID-19. US President Donald Trump has spoken of his optimism that the drug will be the breakthrough the world is seeking.

Two other trials are studying blood pressure drug losartan as a possible treatment, news agency Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, Pfizer, which last year marked 50 years in Cork and employs 3,700 people in Ireland, has also joined the race to develop a Covid-19 vaccine.

It has reportedly teamed up with BioNTech, a German firm which has announced it will start clinical trials of its experimental vaccine next month.

However, Irishman Dr Mike Ryan, the World Health Organisation's top emergency expert, yesterday warned that a working vaccine was at least a year away.

In an interview on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, he said: "Once we've suppressed the transmission, we have to go after the virus. We have to take the fight to the virus.

"We have to make sure the vaccine is absolutely safe... we are talking at least a year. The vaccines will come, but we need to get out and do what we need to do now."

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Cork workers to be involved in race to find vaccine for Covid-19 - Echo Live

Pharmaceutical companies are working around the clock to repurpose current medications and develop new therapies and vaccines to treat and prevent COVID-19. During a on-the-record discussion with reporters March 18, the life sciences industry detailed some of their most promising efforts.

During the Council on Foreign Relations sponsored discussion, President and CEO of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRmA) Stephen Ubl said 80 clinical trials are underway and there could be approved treatments in a matter of months.

One of the most promising treatments was not represented at this meeting. Gilead Sciences expects to have data in April from patients it is studying. They are being treated with Remdesivir, an antiviral, intravenous medicine that's been around for years but has not be approved by the FDA. It has reportedly shown to start working in COVID-19 patients within 24 hours.

Sense Of Urgency

"There's a tremendous sense of urgency and the team is working hard to accelerate the program as quickly as possible, working with regulatory agencies and our public health partners to do that," says Associate Vice President R & D Strategy for Vaccines with Sanofi, Clement Lewin.

Sanofi is working on a vaccine based on data it has from SARS. It has also partnered with Regeneron to develop a treatment for COVID-19 pneumonia. Lewin says there is evidence it can help reduce the number of deaths.

Another treatment, this one from Takeda, uses the body's own immune response to create a drug to treat the coronavirus. This hyperimmune globulin (H-IG) is expected to be available in nine to 18 months.

Takeda's Julie Kim says, "When a virus enters your body, your body enters an immune response and produces antibodies to fight and eliminate the virus. When you have recovered, you have a high level of antibodies."

Takeda would take the plasma from fully recovered patients, process it, purify it and turn it into a medicine.

Pharmaceutical Industry Turning On A Dime

"The reason the industry can move so swiftly is because of investments that have been made over the course of decades. We're talking about repurposing treatments already approved by the FDA," says Ubl.

Companies With Vaccines Under Development

With all the attention on new COVID-19 drugs and vaccines, some worry about the supply of medicines to treat other illnesses and conditions. The industry says it is making sure it has adequate raw materials to make them and it hasn't seen any shortages yet.

Also, what about clinical trials for potentially life-saving cancer treatments? Pfizer says there are ways to continue them remotely but no new patients are being admitted.

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COVID-19 Drugs And Vaccines Showing Promise - WVXU

23.03.20

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has began funding the first round of six new projects to the tune of 10.5m, as the UK government looks to speed up testing of a vaccine, development of new therapies and improving our understanding of how to treat the Covid-19 infection.

As the UK and wider global medical community continues to grapple with the coronavirus outbreak, these six projects will receive the funding as part of UKRIs 20m rapid research response, which is also backed and funded by the Department of Health and Social Care through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

A promising new vaccine which has been developed by UK researchers is set to be supported through pre-clinical and clinical trials to determine whether it is safe and effective. The researchers will also see funding to help develop manufacturing processes for producing the vaccines at a million-dose scale so that, should the clinical trials prove successful, a vaccine could be made available to high-risk groups as quickly as possible.

Patients hospitalised within the NHS with the Covid-19 disease are taking part in a new clinical trial to test potential therapies. Other funded projects will develop new therapeutic antibodies and screen hundreds of existing drugs in the lab to find which ones show promise at tackling the coronavirus.

Another funded project is seeking to collect data on NHS coronavirus patients to answer many urgent questions including which treatments worked best, how the disease was transmitted and why are some people at higher risk of severe illness to better inform efforts to control the outbreak and improve treatment for patients in real time.

The research is aimed at supporting the UK governments efforts to save lives, protect the vulnerable and support the NHS so it can focus on helping those most in need. Building on the UKs world-leading expertise and capabilities in global health and infectious diseases, the research will continue to keep the UK at the forefront of shaping our understanding of the pandemic and best informing measures to tackle it, working collaboratively with experts around the world.

Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty said: The world faces an unprecedented challenge in our efforts to tackle the spread of COVID-19 and it is vital we harness our research capabilities to the fullest extent to limit the outbreak and protect life.

Alongside the world-leading research overseen by the NIHR, these new six projects will allow us to boost our existing knowledge and test new and innovative ways to understand and treat the disease.

READ MORE:Armed Forces to help deliver PPE to frontline NHS staff

READ MORE:Chancellor Rishi Sunak to back NHS against coronavirus in 2020 Budget

UK Research and Innovation Chief Executive, Professor Sir Mark Walport, added: The UKs world-leading researchers have already made vital contributions to the understanding and responses to this pandemic.

UK Research and Innovation, in partnership with NIHR and DHSC, has moved quickly to fund this new, additional research to rapidly test re-purposed therapies in patients, understand the disease and its variation in susceptibility, and boost the development of new vaccines and therapies.

These efforts will be critical to finding better ways to treat and manage COVID-19, which we hope will help to save lives, protect the more vulnerable, and support the development, trials and in due course the scale up of production of much-needed vaccines.

We will continue to support new proposals for research and innovation that will help the UK and others to tackle the pandemic caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock praised the investment as a necessary step in the midst of a global health emergency to ensure the UK was using all of its extensive research expertise to help quickly develop new vaccines.

Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance added: The UK is home to incredible scientists and researchers who are all at the forefront of their field, and all united in their aim; protecting peoples lives from coronavirus.

The announcement made today reflects the vital work being undertaken by our scientists to help develop vaccines and treatments. This research could herald important breakthroughs that will put the NHS in a stronger position to respond to the outbreak.

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Projects awarded 10.5m to boost Covid-19 vaccine research - National Health Executive

News reports emerged over the weekend that the Trump administration attempted to poach scientists working for a German biotech firm in order to obtain exclusive rights to a potential vaccine against the Covid-19 virus. However, the company itself has denied them.

Welt am Sonntag, the Sunday edition of German newspaper Die Welt, reported Sunday that President Donald Trump had offered a large sum of money rumored to amount to $1 billion in an effort to lure scientists working for the Tbingen, Germany-based company CureVac to the U.S. so they could continue their work here. It was reported that would mean the U.S. would have exclusive rights to the vaccine. The company is working with Germanys federally funded Paul Ehrlich Institute on the vaccine against the coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV-2.

The Washington Post reported later Sunday that German officials would discuss the report in crisis meetings Monday, quoting Interior Minister Horst Seehofer as saying that he had heard from several members of the government that the Trump administration had sought to secure rights to the vaccine. Nevertheless, Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence, tweeted that the Welt am Sonntag story was not true.

Meanwhile, CureVac issued a statement Sunday saying that it rejects current rumors of an acquisition and emphasizing that it focuses on developing an mRNA-based coronavirus vaccine to protect people worldwide. In a tweet Monday, the company implicitly denied the Welt am Sonntag report as well.

To make it clear again on coronavirus: CureVac has not received from the U.S. government or related entities an offer before, during and since the Task Force meeting in the White House on March 2, the tweet read. CureVac rejects all allegations from the press.

The company also said Monday that its CEO, Ingmar Hoerr, would take a temporary medical leave of absence, but that it was not due to coronavirus.

Other companies have also been involved in developing potential vaccines against the novel coronavirus. Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said Monday it had dosed the first participant in the National Institutes of Health-led Phase I clinical trial of mRNA-1273, its investigational vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, which as of Monday afternoon had infected more than 179,000 people worldwide up by nearly 10,000 from the day before.

Photo: Esben_H, Getty Images

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CureVac denies reports that Trump admin sought to acquire Covid-19 vaccine rights - MedCity News

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Finding a vaccine to treat the highly contagious COVID-19 has become the top health priority around the world, putting researchers and pharmaceutical companies in a mad dash to come up with an injection that's safe and effective.

Im amazed at just how quickly some of these trials have ramped up, so thats good news, said Marc Jenkins, the director of microbiology and immunology at the University of Minnesota Medical School. I think there will be pressure to reduce some of the regulatory guidelines but I think the system will stick to its guns to some degree.

Finding a vaccine to treat the highly contagious COVID-19 has become the top health priority around the world, putting researchers and pharmaceutical companies in a mad dash to come up with an injection that's safe and effective.

There are several companies behind at least two potential vaccines and a third passive vaccine that seems to be the most effective.

They still have to follow FDA protocols and so I think thats good news, said Jenkins. Thats good for people and thats good for the science because if we do a sloppy trial we dont get any answers.

However, the process of creating a viable vaccine is long. The approval from the Food and Drug Administration is required before the vaccine can be deployed to the general population, but officials are speeding that up.

There are then three phases of testing. Currently, its in Phase 1 after several people in the Seattle area volunteered to be tested.

Its very likely that an effective vaccine will work through antibodies, so these people will have their blood drawn and well know whether that vaccine will begin to make antibodies and if so, thats a good sign, he said.

Another promising sign of beating this pandemic is the herd immunity it might create to communities once most of the general public eventually gets it.

Most of the virus genomes that have been sequenced from patients so far, the virus look almost identical, so that might suggest the virus is going to have a hard time creating a lot of variants of itselfthats good news, said Jenkins.

Herd immunity basically means that if enough people get the virus they will become immune and the outbreak will eventually fizzle out. That has happened with other infectious diseases like chicken pox and polio.

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Researchers working to fast-track a COVID-19 vaccine - FOX 9

Hypothetical vaccine against COVID-19

A COVID-19 vaccine is a hypothetical vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Although no vaccine has completed clinical trials, there are multiple attempts in progress to develop such a vaccine. In late February 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it did not expect a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the causative virus, to become available in less than 18 months.[1] By early March 2020, some 30 vaccine candidates were in development.

Vaccines have been produced against several diseases caused by coronaviruses for animal use, including for infectious bronchitis virus in birds, canine coronavirus and feline coronavirus.[2]

Previous efforts to develop vaccines for viruses in the family Coronaviridae that affect humans have been aimed at severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). Vaccines against SARS[3] and MERS[4] have been tested in non-human animal models. As of 2020, there is no cure or protective vaccine for SARS that has been shown to be both safe and effective in humans.[5][6] According to research papers published in 2005 and 2006, the identification and development of novel vaccines and medicines to treat SARS is a priority for governments and public health agencies around the world.[7][8][9]

There is also no proven vaccine against MERS.[10] When MERS became prevalent, it was believed that existing SARS research may provide a useful template for developing vaccines and therapeutics against a MERS-CoV infection.[5][11] As of March 2020, there was one (DNA based) MERS vaccine which completed phase I clinical trials in humans,[12] and three others in progress, all of which are viral vectored vaccines, two adenoviral-vectored (ChAdOx1-MERS, BVRS-GamVac), and one MVA-vectored (MVA-MERS-S).[13]

SARS-CoV-2 was identified on December 1, 2019 as the cause of what would later be named COVID-19.[14] A major outbreak spread around the world in 2020, leading to considerable investment and research activity to develop a vaccine.[14][15] Many organizations are using published genomes to develop possible vaccines against SARS-CoV-2.[14][16][17][18] About 35 companies and academic institutions are involved,[19] with three of them receiving support from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), including projects by the biotechnology companies Moderna,[20] and Inovio Pharmaceuticals, and the University of Queensland.[21] Some 300 clinical studies are in progress, as of March 2020.[22]

Social media posts have promoted a conspiracy theory claiming the virus behind COVID-19 was known and that a vaccine was already available. The patents cited by various social media posts reference existing patents for genetic sequences and vaccines for other strains of coronavirus such as the SARS coronavirus.[47][48]

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COVID-19 vaccine - Wikipedia

The first steps towards a coronavirus vaccine in the UK start next week, but a vaccine for all is still a year away at best.

Scientists at Public Health England invited the cameras in to their usually off-limits Porton Down research labs.

Theyre the highest containment laboratories in the UK that handle the really nasty stuff, like Ebola, Marburg disease and the much milder, but much more threatening SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 is very similar to SARS. While it was a one-hit-wonder in the world of epidemics, the worry caused by SARS meant lots of candidate vaccines were developed against it. And these have given the scientific community a real head start in developing one for COVID-19.

There are now 41 candidate vaccines listed on the WHOs website.

Theres a few clear leaders in the race.

Vaccines based on the RNA (or translated version of the DNA) of the virus itself. These are being made by companies like Innovio in the US and the vaccine that was first to go into humans in Seattle last week made by another US company Moderna. A team at Imperial College in London is also developing an RNA vaccine which may have advantages over these.

RNA and DNA vaccines have the advantage of being quick to develop and likely to be safe. But there are no vaccines of this type currently on the market against diseases. So no one knows if they will be the most successful against COVID-19.

Then there are more traditional vaccines, based on existing technologies that have been used for other diseases. The Institute Pasteur in France is working on converting its measles-virus based vaccine against SARS to work against COVID-19.

Coronavirus: Everything you need to know

The vaccine theyll be testing first at Porton Down is one developed by the Jenner Institute in at the University of Oxford, where theyre repurposing their adenovirus-based vaccine to work against COVID-19. The advantage these types of vaccine have over the faster-to-develop DNA and RNA type vaccines is that they are tried and tested. If the faster approaches dont work, its likely the more traditional vaccines with a proven track record in other diseases will.

As one researcher leading a COVID-19 vaccine development programme told me recently, its not a race to be first, its a race to get a vaccine that works.

And even once a vaccine is developed, and passes initial safety tests in animals and humans, it takes many more months to be mass produced in order to do a larger trial in volunteers to see if it will work. For COVID-19 these trials are most likely to start with healthcare workers whole are healthy but being exposed to the virus. At least that way the trial will be of benefit to controlling the outbreak if the vaccine seems to work.

But a vaccine wont be available for use in the community for many months after this efficacy trial is completed. So while large vaccine trials may begin in humans towards the end of this year its almost certain that a vaccine for all wont be available until well into next year at the earliest.

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Coronavirus: How scientists are racing to find a Covid-19 vaccine - ITV News

The process is simple. Surrender some of your blood, and a lab will filter out the cells and keep only the amber-colored serum, with the antibodies to the virus still in there and active. This serum, further refined, is called hyperimmune globulin. All that remains is to infuse the serum into a healthy person (or, in much greater quantities, into a sick one). The antibodies wont last forever, but they could last weeks or months, and either help a sick recipient heal or keep a healthy recipient from getting the virus at all.

Yesterday, a team at Johns Hopkins University led by Arturo Casadevall received FDA approval to try this technique. This has a high probability of working, based on 100 years of experience in medicine, he says. Indeed, it was used successfully to treat Ebola in 2014.

The approach does carry risks. Antibodies to a virus can make a viral infection worse in some cases, such as with dengue fever. We dont know if COVID-19 will react that way. (Most viruses do not.) Despite this, Casadevall says he has already had volunteers who wish to donate their antibodies or receive the serum from others. This is real, he says. In eight weeks, we may have something thats useful. Takeda Pharmaceuticals, a Japanese company that has developed and sold hyperimmune globulin for other conditions since 2005, has already started collecting plasma from convalescent COVID-19 patients, according to Julie Kim, an executive there. She says she hopes that Takedas product will become available in nine to 18 months.

Read: America isnt testing for the most alarming cases of coronavirus

A catch: Each COVID-19 survivor can support the immunity of at most a few others, and to do so, the survivor will have to be bled at regular intervals, becoming a human blood bag. Casadevall suggests that the ratio of convalescent COVID-19 patients to serum recipients might be as low as 1 to 2, or as large as 1 to 1010 immunized recipients for every survivor who opens his veins. The next eight weeks will be devoted, among other things, to figuring out how many people a single blood bag can support. Theyll also have to figure out which convalescent patients are best endowed with antibodies, and wring as much blood plasma out of them as possible.

And if the project works, it will create ethical dilemmas. Who will be among the lucky 10 for every survivor? Will you be able to donate your antibodies to your loved ones? Theyre your antibodies after allones you worked hard to produceand perhaps you should have the right to choose where they should go. In free countries, we are reluctant to take away citizens precious bodily fluids, bleeding one another dry, without permission.

But something feels wrong about a world in which the rich can immunize themselves by buying the blood of the poor as they stagger out of the hospital. As a matter of public health, people in need should have dibs on those antibodies. Put health-care workers first in line, Casadevall suggests, and those who care for sick relatives at home. One option would be to nationalize COVID-19 antibodies: You can keep them in your own body and enjoy them all you like, but once they get sucked out of your body, they belong to humanity and might even get pooled into a massive stockpile of blood plasma, on tap for those who need it most. Another option, less restrictive, would be to treat the plasma like kidneys. You can donate your kidney to anyone but sell it to no one. This approach, it must be said, leaves us with a shortfall of 21,000 kidneys every year, and 13 people die every day on the wait list. Let survivors sell their antibodies, and more antibodies will be available.

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COVID-19 Vaccines Are Coming, but Theyre Not What You Think - The Atlantic

This week, the first patients in a clinical trial for a potential COVID-19 vaccine were given shots, marking a key step in the global race to find a cure. Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute in Seattle developed a COVID-19 vaccine in record time and started administering the shots on Monday.

The first person to receive a dose of the potential vaccine was 43-year-old Jennifer Haller, an operations manager at a small tech company, according to The Associated Press. "We all feel so helpless. This is an amazing opportunity for me to do something," Haller said, adding that her two teenagers "think it's cool" that she's taking part in the study.

Ultimately, 45 volunteers, ages 18 to 55, will get two doses the vaccine over a span of about 6 weeks,according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).

TheNational Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH, is funding the trial. The vaccine is called mRNA-1273 and was developed by NIAID, and Moderna, Inc., a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company.

"Finding a safe and effective vaccine to prevent infection with SARS-CoV-2 is an urgent public health priority," NIAID Director Anthony Fauci said. "This Phase 1 study, launched in record speed, is an important first step toward achieving that goal."

Other potential COVID-19 vaccines are being developed around the world, including at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. On Monday's "CBS Evening News," David Martin spoke to doctors there to learn more about the potential cures.

Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad, a director at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, is testing a potential vaccine that would block the virus from attaching to a person's lung. "If it can't get into your lung cells, it can't cause the disease," Modjarrad said.

Still, the race for the coronavirus vaccine could take 12 to 18 months to run, Martin reports. So, Lieutenant Colonel Mara Kreishman-Deitrick is working on a drug that people who already have the disease can take.

"What we're aiming to develop here is an antiviral treatment that will kill the virus and actually cure them of the disease so they don't further spread it to the rest of the community," she told Martin.

Kreishman-Deitrick says an existing drug used against Ebola may work against the novel coronavirus as well. "It's ready for a clinical trial in humans and once those clinical trials show that it's affected then it will be available for wider use in humans," she said. It hasn't yet been proved effective but could be used as an emergency treatment.

COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has killed at more than 90 people in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Globally, the death toll is over 7,500, with the most aggressive outbreaks still spreading in Europe and Iran.

Dr. Caitlin Rivers, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said Tuesday in a live webcast about the coronavirus pandemic that "in some respects we are just getting started in the United States."

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First patients injected with potential COVID-19 vaccine in ...

The death toll for COVID-19 is on the rise, and so is the total number of cases. In the context of this global pandemic, feeling overwhelmed by all the negative information is a natural response. But researchers are also hard at work trying to understand, treat, and prevent the new coronavirus. We take a look at some of their results.

For live updates on the latest developments regarding the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, click here.

As of yesterday, the total number of deaths from COVID-19 across the world has surpassed 10,000.

Currently, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the globe stands at 244,000.

These numbers can induce restlessness and worry.

The importance of taking precautions and staying safe during this global pandemic cannot be overestimated, but it is also helpful to look at some emerging research that could pave the way for future treatment and prevention.

In this article, we round up some of this evidence, which has featured recently on Medical News Today.

Researchers in Hong Kong have evaluated the impact that the outbreak has had on 43 public hospitals there.

The numbers are encouraging: In the first 6 weeks since the start of the outbreak, 413 healthcare workers dealt with 42 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Of these employees, 11 had unprotected exposure to the new coronavirus.

As a result of implementing best practices for infection control, none of the healthcare staff contracted the virus during the study period. Furthermore, no hospital-acquired infections occurred.

Dr. Vincent C.C. Cheng, from the Department of Microbiology at Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong, and his colleagues conclude:

Appropriate hospital infection control measures can prevent healthcare-associated transmission of the [new] coronavirus [] Vigilance in hand hygiene practice, wearing of surgical masks in the hospital, and appropriate use of personal protective equipment in patient care [] are the key infection control measures to prevent hospital transmission of the virus.

A study involving four rhesus macaques found that contracting SARS-CoV-2 the virus that causes COVID-19 protected against future reinfections.

The scientists reinfected two of the four monkeys with the virus 28 days after the initial infection.

A total of 96 nasopharyngeal and anal swabs tested negative after the reexposure of SARS-CoV-2, report the researchers. The euthanasia and necropsy of one of the two monkeys confirmed these results.

Taken together, our results indicated that the primary SARS-CoV-2 infection could protect from subsequent exposures, which have [] vital implications for vaccine design [and disease prognosis], conclude the authors of the study.

MNT contacted Martin Bachmann, a professor of vaccinology at Oxford Universitys Jenner Institute in the United Kingdom, on the broader subject of COVID-19 and building up immunity to the virus.

I can tell you, if you got [COVID-19] and you got really sick, I am sure that will make an antibody response that will also last.

Prof. Martin Bachmann

Prof. Bachmann, who is also the head of the department of immunology at the University of Bern in Switzerland, continued: But, if you have the virus and it only replicates a little and never really reaches the lymph nodes, then maybe you dont really make [an antibody response], but then you have not really been sick. [Of] anyone who has been really sick, I would be surprised to find anyone who didnt make an antibody response.

A trial is currently taking place to test a potential SARS-CoV-2 vaccine for the first time in humans.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have funded the trial, which is taking place at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle.

In the trial, 45 healthy volunteers will receive a vaccine that contains a segment of genetic code copied from SARS-CoV-2. As the vaccine does not contain the actual SARS-CoV-2, the participants will not develop COVID-19.

Government officials caution that it may take 1218 months before the vaccine reaches the market and explain that the main purpose of this current trial is to make sure that there are no serious side effects.

However, many other efforts are underway for devising new vaccines. In this article, our research editor, Yella Hewings-Martin, Ph.D., rounded up several projects that identified a potential vaccine and therapy targets for SARS-CoV-2.

Doctors may be able to use an age-old method called passive antibody therapy to treat COVID-19, suggests research featuring in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

The researchers who authored the paper say, Deployment of this option requires no research or development, as the method has been around since the 1930s.

The method involves collecting blood from a person who has had the virus and recovered from it. Using the serum the part that contains infection-fighting antibodies researchers hope to be able to inject another person, thus either preventing an infection or helping to fight it off.

Dr. Arturo Casadevall, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, MD, and co-author of the new paper, says:

Its all doable but to get it done, it requires effort, organization, resources and people who have recovered from the disease who can donate the blood.

A new case study, appearing in the journal Nature Medicine, documents the case of a COVID-19 patient who recovered from the condition within days.

The patient was a 47-year-old woman who had contracted the virus in Wuhan, China, and the researchers examined her immune response in their effort to understand her recovery.

Prof. Katherine Kedzierska, Head of the Human T cell Laboratory in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Doherty Institute in Melbourne, Australia, and her colleagues found an increase in immunoglobulins the most common type of antibodies in the womans blood samples.

The scientists also found a high number of key immune cells, such as specialized helper T cells, killer T cells, and B cells, 79 days after symptom onset.

This is an incredible step forward in understanding what drives recovery of COVID-19. People can use our methods to understand the immune responses in larger COVID-19 cohorts and also understand whats lacking in those who have fatal outcomes.

Prof. Katherine Kedzierska

For live updates on the latest developments regarding the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, click here.

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COVID-19: 5 reasons to be cautiously hopeful - Medical News Today