March 13, 2020

treatments and vaccines for coronavirus – when we will have them?

One of the reasons scientists worry about a novel virus is that we don’t have either natural immunity or effective medical treatments. In the past, vaccines for new infectious diseases could take up to 20 years to develop – now, President Trump is claiming that 12 months is too long.

So how exactly do we create a vaccine from scratch? How has the process changed, and will it continue to get faster or is there likely to always be a minimum period of time it will take?

During this crisis, we have heard from hundreds of independent scientists and from the chief scientists advising government. But what do scientists in big pharma and the biotech sector do at such times? Are they competing or collaborating?

Journalists came to the SMC to hear some of these industry scientists discuss topics such as:

• Drug treatments. We are told that companies are testing anti-virals that are already in use for diseases like HIV. But how and where does this testing take place? Is it in in cells, animals or Covid-19 patients?
• Safety implications. Do we risk compromising patient safety by fast tracking vaccines and anti-virals? How does an agency like the MHRA operate during times of crisis?
• If scientists find an effective drug or develop a vaccine, how do we scale up the manufacture to meet the need of potentially a huge amount of people?

The speakers included:

Prof Hanneke Schuitemaker, Global Head of Viral Vaccine Discovery and Translational Medicine, and Disease Area Stronghold Leader for Viral Vaccines, Janssen Vaccines

Ian McCubbin, Chair RoslinCT; Chair Innovate UK Manufacturing Advisory Group; Independent Pharmaceutical Industry Advisor; formerly (till 2018) SVP North America, Japan and Global Pharmacy Supply Chain, GSK

Dr Melanie Saville, Director of Vaccine Research and Development, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)

Dr Nicola Rose, Head of Virology Division, National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC, MHRA)