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How long until the vaccine? A few months or five years?
How long until the vaccine?
The question all world is asking hasn’t a simple reply: lab results but also politics dictate the times
Interview with Piero Di Lorenzo, President and CEO of IRBM, the company studying the vaccine
How long until the vaccine?
A few months or five years?
IRBM, located in Pomezia (Rome), is the Italian Research Institute collaborating with the Jenner Institute of Oxford University to develop the vaccine.
Piero Di Lorenzo confirms: the first batch of the vaccine is being manufacturing since March 17th. Animal testing will be carried out at the end of May, clinical trial from the end of June.
“Covid-19 virus has been sequenced and isolated by Chinese in December. […] Right after that, our partners of Oxford have synthesized the Spike protein […] that is the evil and infectious part of the virus. Such gene, once made harmless, has to be inoculated in human body so that antibodies begin to be produced. […] Our task is to offer our experience in adenovirus to our Oxford partner. We are speaking of a platform already tested successfully, as we have produced a million doses of the vaccine for Ebola”. All standard protocol may take up to five years but “if the pandemic kept spreading, regulatory authorities both national and international could shorten the times sharply.”
Article by Daniele Castri and Stefano Carugno published on Il Caffè di Roma – 26/03/2020
