Pioneering Covid-19 vaccine study launches at York and Scarborough NHS Trust
It's the first jab to be trialled in the UK derived from a plant.
A pioneering new coronavirus vaccine study is today being launched in North Yorkshire.
The trial is taking place at York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, in collaboration with the National Institute for Health Research.
It is the first study to take place in the UK using a vaccine derived from a plant, which is made by Canadian company Medicago, and GlaxosmithKline.
1,500 volunteers aged 18-39 are being recruited across the UK, and they will all receive either the vaccine, followed by a placebo, or vice versa, although it is a blind study so participants won't know which they have received.
The impact of the study
As the newest vaccine is derived from a plant, it has the potential to increase the global roll-out of coronavirus vaccines.
Professor Charles Lacey, Principle Investigator for the trial in North Yorkshire, said: "It happens to be cheap, safe, effective and transferrable. There are plant production facilities in South Africa, so you could actually make it on site in the developing world relatively easily without building a £100million-type factory."
He added that it should benefit patients at York and Scarborough NHS Trust as well, because "if you're going somewhere that's doing research as well as looking after ordinary patients, it tends to be a very high level of care. People are gradually realising that, and therefore people are volunteering quite readily for these kind of trials."
Prof Lacey also told us early trials are promising: "It looks very safe, and it also produces very high anti-body levels.
"We suspect it should produce very high levels of protection against infection."