Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca agreed to make an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University researchers as the race heats up for the key to halting the pandemic.
On Friday (May 1) International news media informs that the vaccine will be manufactured in bulk and distributed globally without any profit, as told by AstraZeneca.
The company is one of dozens around the world that have joined the competition, with the Trump administration on Wednesday announcing a massive effort aimed at making shots available for Americans by year's end. Astra's tie-up with Oxford shows how developers are aiming to manufacture vaccines before they've cleared human tests so they can be distributed as soon as possible.
As the coronavirus shuts down businesses and industries, countries are vying for a vaccine to help them get workers back in place and economies restarted. Oxford's swift work offers a glimmer of hope in a country already beset by thousands of deaths and a continuing lockdown.
"We should know relatively soon if it does work or not," Astra Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot told BBC radio. "By June, July, we will already have a pretty good idea."
The experimental shot could reach late-stage trials by the middle of the year, ranking as one of the most advanced vaccine projects. Astra said Thursday it would join in the development as well as manufacture and distribute the product.
The vaccine ChAdOx1 nCoV-19। developed by a team headed by Oxford's Sarah Gilbert entered human testing last week. It's one of at least 70 projects under development against the new virus, Sars-CoV-2. As the number of coronavirus infections globally exceeds 3 million, the pressure is growing to come up with solutions to the contagion.