Britain minister favours vaccinating teachers, police

LONDON: Britain's minister in charge of COVID-19 vaccinations said once everyone in the top priority groups had been reached, he favoured moving onto groups such as teachers and the police rather than bringing forward second doses, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Nadhim Zahawi said a decision had not yet been made on how to prioritise the use of available doses once the priority groups, such as elderly and clinically vulnerable people, had received an initial dose. He added that his comment reflected only his personal view.

"My own personal view is you want to protect as many people as quickly as possible so you want to get through the nine categories and then move towards teachers ... police officers, shop workers," he told lawmakers on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a new potentially life-saving inhaler-based treatment which is hoped will protect COVID-19 patients from developing severe illness has begun a major trial at UK hospitals.

It involves inhaling a protein called interferon beta-1a (SNG001), which the body produces when it gets a viral infection, and the hope is it will stimulate the body's immune system and prime cells to be ready to fight off viruses.

Synairgen's SG018 trial is a randomised placebo-controlled study being conducted in approximately 20 countries enrolling a total of 610 COVID-19 patients who require supplemental oxygen.

We need treatments as well as vaccines to fight highly pathogenic viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 [COVID-19]. Development of treatments like ours will remain necessary in cases where vaccines are not effective, for those who do not get vaccinated, and in case the virus mutates to the point where vaccines become less effective, said Richard Marsden, CEO of Synairgen.

We believe this trial presents an opportunity for a significant UK scientific breakthrough and if given the right support, our drug could rapidly assist with the global crisis, he said. After reporting the results for the primary and key secondary endpoints of the study, enrolled patients will continue to be assessed for long-COVID-19 symptoms.

Synairgen is a clinical-stage respiratory drug discovery and development company founded by University of Southampton Professors Sir Stephen Holgate, Donna Davies and Ratko Djukanovic. It has appointed Parexel Biotech, a division of the leading global clinical research organisation Parexel to help conduct the Phase III trial and several UK sites have now been initiated, with further sites in the US and the European Union (EU) expected to follow.