Trials for a coronavirus vaccine are underway, but will it be available to all? – ABC News

Updated April 23, 2020 06:37:18

With more than 115 coronavirus vaccines in development, one of the largest pandemic health innovation funding bodies has raised the alarm over equity of access if a vaccine finally arrives.

Jane Halton is the former head of the Australian Department of Health and the chair of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI).

"We now have to think about issues around vaccine sovereignty," she told 7.30.

"How do we ensure that the vulnerable populations around the world will get access to a vaccine?"

The organisation is attempting to avoid what happened in 2009, when wealthy countries including Australia entered into contracts with big pharmaceutical companies, effectively monopolising the H1N1 swine flu vaccine at the expense of poorer nations.

"Everybody will want this vaccine, everybody will want to be vaccinated to reduce their risk," she said.

"So we have to negotiate this."

It echoes the concerns of Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Laurie Garett.

"Without equity, pandemic battles will fail," he wrote.

"Viruses will simply recirculate, and perhaps undergo mutations or changes that render vaccines useless, passing through the unprotected populations of the planet."

CEPI is currently funding 10 vaccines for COVID-19 that Ms Halton said were not necessarily in the commercial interest of big pharmaceutical companies in recent years.

"A number of people were very worried that we weren't investing money in some potential disease causing pathogens, that no one was going to spend money on because there wasn't a commercial return." she said.

Some of these vaccine technologies were initially created to combat SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), although an effective, safe vaccine was never fully approved.

"We were lucky with SARS, we dodged a bullet," Ms Halton said.

"And I think many of us would say that the countries who experienced SARS have responded more quickly than others; they remember.

"But we tried to develop vaccines for SARS. And in one particular case, there was a vaccine that looked very promising.

"Sadly, it turned out not to be safe."

According to CEPI, there are six candidates in clinical development right now.

Two in the USA (mRNA-1273 and INO-4800), three in China (Ad5-nCoV, LV-SMENP-DC and a Pathogen-specific aAPC) and one in the United Kingdom.

According to the British Secretary of Health, the UK trial is expected to begin human testing today.

The Oxford University project, a collaboration between the university's Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group, hopes to produce a million doses of the vaccine by September.

The world's biggest pharmaceutical company, Johnson and Johnson, announced it would begin clinical trials of its vaccine this September with the view to producing 1 billion doses by next year, according to Paul Kershaw, head of the company's Asia Pacific Medical Affairs.

"We're accustomed to developing vaccines over a period of five, seven or even more years," he told 7.30.

"And so doing this in 12 to 18 months is an extremely compressed timeframe.

"It's basically an inactivated virus that allows us to deliver antibodies, creating the presence of antibodies which will fight the virus in patients.

"It's a very safe vector. It's something that we have experience with.

"We've used it extensively already to mount a campaign against Ebola in Africa."

But the process is long and extremely expensive, and companies will look to be the first to market and recoup costs.

"That is the nature of drug development. It's a risky business," Mr Kershaw said.

"We can't wait to finish the clinical trials and then start developing on manufacturing and distributing the vaccine. What we need to do is both of those activities in parallel."

It is possible that multiple vaccines might succeed, much like the way flu shots have different brands or ingredients in each country.

"It's entirely possible that there will be a couple of vaccines, possibly using different technology," Ms Halton said.

Mr Kershaw agrees.

"There will likely be a number of vaccines that become available," he said.

"And that's all the better. We're playing a part."

Topics:chemicals-and-pharmaceuticals,health,covid-19,epidemics-and-pandemics,medical-research,vaccines-and-immunity,australia

First posted April 23, 2020 04:57:42

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Trials for a coronavirus vaccine are underway, but will it be available to all? - ABC News