The UK is beginning human trials of a coronavirus vaccine, Bloomberg reports that Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “In the long run, the best way to defeat coronavirus is through a vaccine. The UK is at the front of the global effort. We have put more money than any other country into a global search for a vaccine and, for all the efforts around the world, two of the leading vaccine developments are taking place here at home.”
The trials will be of a drug developed at Oxford University. Hancock said the government would give $25m to support the research. “In normal times, reaching this stage would take years,” he said. Another grant will go to a separate project at Imperial College London.
The health secretary said the process for finding a vaccine would take “trial and error,” but he has told UK scientists leading the search he would “back them to the hilt and give them every resource they need” in order to succeed. “After all, the upside of being the first country in the world to develop a successful vaccine is so huge that I am throwing everything at it,” he said.
[link url="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-21/u-k-to-start-human-trials-of-coronavirus-vaccine-on-thursday"]Full Bloomberg report[/link]