According to the South China Morning Post, Professor Yuan Guodong at the University of Hong Kong stated that his research team has developed a vaccine against the new corona virus, which has caused the deaths of 132 people in China as of January 29, 2020.
According to Professor Yuan, the vaccine was isolated from the virus in the first case of the Wuhan corona virus infection in Hong Kong.
“We have produced a vaccine, but it will take more time to test this vaccine on animals,” Professor Yuan said. Although he did not provide a specific timeline, this expert affirmed that it will take several months to test the vaccine on animals and at least 1 year for clinical trials on humans before it can be used.
Specifically, the vaccine will be injected into test animals to see if these species can produce an immune response. Animals that have been vaccinated will then be exposed to the virus to test effectiveness.
“If the vaccine proves effective and safe on some animal species, it will soon be tested clinically on humans. This process will take at least one year if everything goes smoothly.”
It is known that the vaccine for Wuhan pneumonia was produced based on a nasal spray flu vaccine, which was previously developed by Professor Yuan’s team. Experts at the University of Hong Kong have modified this flu vaccine with a part of the surface antigen of the corona virus. If successfully tested, this vaccine could be the solution to the outbreak currently infecting over 6,000 people in mainland China, resulting in 132 deaths.
In Hong Kong, there have been 8 cases of the new corona virus, and currently 103 suspected cases are being isolated in public hospitals.
According to Xinhua News, the Dong Shanghai Hospital affiliated with Tongji University (Shanghai) has approved a project to develop a vaccine against the new corona virus. Accordingly, the vaccine will be developed by the hospital and the biotechnology company Stemirna Therapeutics in Shanghai. The leader of Stemirna Therapeutics stated that the vaccine sample will be produced within 40 days and will be tested before being put into use as soon as possible.
Reference SCMP