The Times - UK (2020-07-21)

10 2GM Tuesday July 21 2020 | the times

News

The government has secured at least
90 million doses of potential Covid-
vaccines from overseas companies in
an attempt to spread its risk between
different technologies.
The agreements with German,
American and French pharmaceutical
firms were part of a flurry of announce-
ments which also included plans to sign
up 500,000 British volunteers to take
part in future vaccine trials and a deal to
secure a million doses of an antibody
treatment from AstraZeneca, the Brit-
ish drugmaker.
The new deals represent a bet on
three technologies. They include
30 million doses of an “RNA vaccine”
being developed by Biontech and Pfiz-
er. This involves injecting a small piece
of genetic code into muscle cells, which
then produce coronavirus proteins.
A second deal announced yesterday
morning would allow the purchase of
60 million doses of a vaccine from Val-
neva, a French company that uses an
inactivated form of coronavirus to train
the immune system.
This comes on top of an earlier agree-
ment with AstraZeneca to supply
100 million doses of the Oxford Uni-
versity vaccine, which uses a safe virus
to deliver the code for making a corona-
virus protein.
Both the Oxford and the Biontech
vaccine could be available sooner than
Valneva’s offering, possibly by the end
of the year, but are more experimental.
The decision to place orders for
several types of vaccine reflects the un-
certainty that any of them will work.
Kate Bingham, chairwoman of the
UK Vaccine Taskforce, said the inten-
tion was to have a broad portfolio, in the
hope that one approach succeeded, and
then to use that to vaccinate key work-
ers and the vulnerable. “You’ve got two
of the more advanced vaccine modali-
ties — they are the least well-under-
stood,” she said. “And there’s the boring
one, the inactivated virus, which is bet-
ter understood but less sexy. If you’re
betting you would bet on the boring

ones, not the hairy scary sexy ones. But

we can’t not make an investment in the

hairy scary sexy ones in case they pan

out.” Given the promising early results

of the Oxford vaccine, they were hope-

ful for a positive early result, she said.

If the Valneva vaccine, which has not

yet entered human trials, is shown to be

safe and effective, the government has

pledged to back the manufacture of

another 40 million doses, probably at

its factory in Livingston, Scotland.

Many would be distributed abroad.

Alok Sharma, the business secretary,

said: “We are doing everything we can

to ensure the British public get access to

a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine

as soon as possible. This new partner-

Quarter of

Britons may

decline to

have vaccine

Kat Lay Health Correspondent

More than a quarter of Britons might

refuse to have a Covid-19 vaccine even

if one passes all trials.

Some 14 per cent of people in a poll

said that they would not want to be

vaccinated against coronavirus “if a

high quality vaccine were available”,

with a further 13 per cent “unsure” if

they would have the jab.

There are concerns over anti-

vaccination sentiment, with fears that

misinformation is spreading online.

The poll, carried out by ORB

International, surveyed 2,065 people

across the UK last week.

Women were more likely than men

to say they would refuse a vaccine, at 16

per cent compared with 12 per cent.

People aged 65 or over were least

likely to be against Covid-

vaccination, at 9 per cent, compared

with 22 per cent of those aged between

25 and 34.

Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at

the University of East Anglia, told the

The runners

Type Adenovirus vector,

moderately

experimental

Timeline Finished phase

1 trials, phase 2/3 under

way, aiming for full

results by year’s end

Mechanism The Oxford

team think it is enough

to show your immune

system a single bit of the

virus: the spikes on its

outside. The virus uses

these spikes to infect us

and our immune system

learns to destroy them

but on their own they

are harmless. The

Oxford vaccine is a way

of making these spikes

inside you. The vaccine

is itself a virus but one

that cannot reproduce in

humans. Inside this

benign virus is a sliver of

something less benign: a

section of genetic code

from the coronavirus

providing instructions to

make the spike.

After vaccination, your

body starts producing

these spikes and training

the immune system to

spot them. When it sees

them attached to the

coronavirus itself it

should know what to do.

Oxford University Biontech-Pfizer

Type mRNA, very

experimental

Timeline Finished

phase 1 trials, aiming for

full results by year end

Mechanism For

vaccinologists this is not

only the most

experimental vaccine

but also the most

exciting. It is a wholly

new technology, similar

to that also being tested

by the Imperial College

team, based on a piece

of genetic code called

mRNA. Inside our bodies

mRNA is the last step in

making proteins. It

converts DNA

instructions into the

molecules used to

power our bodies. The

trick is to use this

process for the vaccine’s

own ends. The mRNA

that Biontech is injecting

makes a protein seen on

the outside of the

coronavirus: a protein

spike. The hope is that

our cells will gobble up

the mRNA, turn into

spike factories and

churn them out, training

the body to spot the real

thing. Nothing like this

has been done before.

Valneva

Type Inactivated full

virus, standard tech

Timeline Not in human

trials until the end of the

year, full results by

mid-2021 at the earliest

Mechanism Valneva’s

vaccine is, from an

immunological

perspective, the most

boring. It is far closer to

the sort of vaccine that

you will have learnt

about at school than the

sort scientists now

consider cutting edge.

The French company is

making a deactivated

version of the

coronavirus, set to be

manufactured in

Scotland. It is a little like

a car without an engine.

What they inject will

look like coronavirus. It

will have the bodywork

of coronavirus but, like

an engineless car, it

won’t go. Your immune

system will, it is hoped,

make antibodies that

latch on to the spikes on

the outside, and T-cells

that can chomp on to

cells infected by it. When

the real thing revs it can

defeat it before it has

time to get going.

Coronavirus Chimpanzee virus Antibody

Gene

Inactivated virus used to transport the genetic

code for a coronavirus spike into the body,

where it is then manufactured, provoking an

immune response

Cell

Genetic code for a coronavirus spike is transported

straight into body’s cells, which start producing

copies

Antibody

Genetic

code

Live virus is inactivated and injected

into body, teaching the immune

system what to recognise

Inactivated

virus

Coronavirus

The Tory and Labour leaders focused

News Coronavirus

Bets are placed on 190m doses,

Rhys Blakely Science Correspondent
Tom Whipple Science Editor

ship with some of the world’s foremost

pharmaceutical and vaccine compa-

nies will ensure the UK has the best

chance possible of securing a vaccine

that protects those most at risk.”

Yesterday’s announcements re-

flected a belief, however, that the

pandemic still has a long way to run. An

NHS Covid-19 vaccine research

registry was also launched. The online

service should allow members of the

public to register their interest and be

contacted to participate in clinical

studies. The aim is to get 500,

volunteers signed up by October — but

they will only be a useful resource if

significant viral transmission remains.

Professor Chris Whitty, the chief

medical officer for England, said:

“Thanks to Covid-19 patients’ willing-

ness to take part in treatment studies,

we’ve been able to identify treatments

that work and ones that don’t, which

has improved patient care worldwide.

Now that there are several promising

vaccines on the horizon, we need to call

again on the generosity of the public to

help find out which potential vaccines

are the most effective. Please go to the

website and consider volunteering.”

As part of a wider £131 million invest-

ment by the government, support has

also been given to Imperial College

London to develop their vaccine candi-

date, which started human studies in

June. The government has also reached

an agreement “in principle” to buy a

million doses of a treatment containing

laboratory-made Covid-19 antibodies

from AstraZeneca. This could be used

by people for whom vaccines are not

suitable, such as cancer patients whose

immune systems are compromised.

Without any guarantee that any

one vaccine will work, talks are being

held internationally to find ways to

pool the risk between nations, and

ensure equitable access for at-risk

groups. The government has pledged

£250 million to the Coalition for

Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, a

global group working to ensure that

treatments and vaccines are available

around the world.

Drugmaker’s shares boom, pages 38-

Analysis

W

hen the

first

vaccine

is shown

to work against

coronavirus, the world

will demand

eight billion doses

(Tom Whipple writes).

To understand what

that means, consider

this warning from

Peter Piot, director of

the London School of

Hygiene and Tropical

Medicine: the world

does not even have

that many glass vials,

let alone the vaccine

doses to put in them.

That is why Britain

has secured access to

90 million doses of

vaccines that might

not work. This is to

add to our early

purchase of a similar

number of doses of

the Oxford vaccine,

another that, despite

promising phase 1

results yesterday,

might also not work.

It is great news that

Oxford has developed

an immune response,

but all vaccines are

long shots. The reason

for these early

purchases is simple.

When — if — the

vaccines are proven to

work we will be ready

to go. At that point

these vaccines — two

of which we cannot

make at scale on

British soil — will be

the most in-demand

pharmaceutical

product in history.

And there is no

guarantee that we will

get them. So rather

than buying them

after they have

succeeded in trials,

we buy them before,

as a bet.

The three vaccines

Britain has bought

range from the

experimental to the

bog-standard.

Biontech-Pfizer’s is

cutting edge. Oxford’s

is still new

technology, but with

an approach shown to

work in the past. In

including Valneva’s

offering, an

inactivated version of

the virus, the

government is

accepting that in the

vaccine race the

tortoise of tried and

true methods might

beat the hare of the

speedy but flashy

alternatives.

Until we put these

vaccines into people,

and then expose them

naturally to the virus,

we have no idea

whether they will

work.

No vaccine has

been shown to beat

this coronavirus. In a

year’s time the world

hopes one will. We

must hope that one of

Britain’s purchases

pays off. If it doesn’t,

we will have to rely on

other countries.

That is why talks

are also under way to

make international

spread bets, to pool

risk before and pool

results after.

It may be that one

of the vaccines

Britain has bought

stops the virus. If so,

we will vaccinate our

elderly and

vulnerable; and we

may well donate what

remains to other

countries. To give

away vaccines we can

use might be

politically difficult but

it will be easier than

finding that none of

ours works and that

no one is prepared to

help.