AUSTIN (KXAN) — With coronavirus cases on the rise around the world, many people are asking: when will there be a vaccine?
Right now, there’s no cure or vaccine to prevent this strain of Wuhan coronavirus, but different groups of scientists have been making strides towards the creation of one.
President Donald Trump said Monday that his administration has asked pharmaceutical companies to “accelerate” efforts to create a coronavirus vaccine.
Meanwhile, experts in Texas told KXAN on Monday they estimate the process could take at least a year.
“It’s much more likely to be in 18-24 month time frame,” Dr. Jason McLellan, Associate Professor of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Texas, said.
Before a vaccine can be distributed to the public, there are several steps:
- Conduct pre-clinical testing on animals
- Manufacture initial vaccine batches, based on Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)
- Begin clinical trials: Phase I, II, III
- Get FDA approval
- Begin large-scale production and distribution
McLellan said animal trials are already going on, but clinical trials with volunteers take the most time.
- Phase I: test for safety in a small number of healthy adults (tens of people)
- Phase II: test for safety and efficacy (hundreds of people)
- Phase III: use placebo or control group to test efficacy (thousands of people)
“Those steps cannot be sped up too much,” McLellan said.
He has been studying coronavirus for years, since the SARS outbreak in 2002. As soon as reports of the new coronavirus surfaced, his team began mapping a “spike protein,” the part of the virus that attaches itself to human cells.
MORE: UT makes first 3D map of coronavirus, breakthrough in developing a vaccine
He said their map will help in creating a vaccine and other types of prevention for diseases like this.
No “quick fix”
“I’m almost certain we will not have a vaccine available in time for this particular epidemic, unfortunately, here in the United States,” Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine said.
Hotez is also the Co-Director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development. He said his group has developed a prototype vaccine for SARS, and since this new Wuhan coronavirus is similar (Hotez said 80%), they hope their vaccine could cross-protect against both diseases.
His group has applied for proposals to move their vaccine into clinical testing, but they are still waiting for federal appropriations and funding.
“The bad news — or the not so good news — is clinical testing is going to take a lot of time. You have to show that that vaccine is both effective at preventing the virus and also safe.”
He emphasized the importance of the process for people’s safety, adding that there’s a reason there’s no “quick fix.”
“Certain respiratory virus vaccines, in testing, will reveal that they can actually make things worse,” Hotez said.
“The hardest thing to to do is to advance new technologies for a brand new virus in the middle of a public health crisis.”
Dr. Peter Hotez, Baylor College of Medicine & Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development
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