UK to begin 'human challenge' trials to speed up vaccine hunt

London: Around 90 volunteers will be recruited to be exposed to small amounts of the novel Coronavirus in a controlled setting for the first stage of "human challenge" trials to try and speed up the hunt for a viable COVID-19 vaccine, the UK government said on Tuesday.

It comes with a £33.6 million investment for experts from the National Health Service (NHS), academia and the private sector to join forces to make the UK among the first countries in the world to explore and establish human challenge trials to accelerate the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

If approved by regulators and the ethics committee, the studies would start in January next year with results expected by May 2021.

"We are doing everything we can to fight Coronavirus, including backing our best and brightest scientists and researchers in their hunt for a safe and effective vaccine," said UK Business Secretary Alok Sharma.

"The funding announced today for these ground-breaking but carefully controlled studies marks an important next step in building on our understanding of the virus and accelerating the development of our most promising vaccines which will ultimately help in beginning our return to normal life," he said.

In human challenge studies, a vaccine candidate that has proven to be safe in initial trials is given to a small number of carefully selected healthy adult volunteers, who are then exposed to the virus in a safe and controlled environment. Medics and scientists then closely monitor the effect on volunteers 24 hours per day to see exactly how the vaccine works and to identify any side effects.