U.K. to reportedly conduct human challenge trials with COVID-19 vaccines

By Chris Newmarker | October 20, 2020

British researchers plan to deliberately infect healthy volunteers with lab-grown COVID-19 viruses in order to test potential vaccines, according to a report today in The Washington Post.

U.S. researchers have seen so-called human challenge trials as too risky, but U.K. scientists think it’s worth the risk if the challenge trials speed up the development of a COVID-19 vaccine by even a few months. The human challenge trials will start in January; it is not yet known which vaccines will get tested, according to the Post.

In the U.S., there are presently a handful of potential COVID-19 vaccines in the midst of Phase 3 clinical trials. Officials at companies including Moderna and Pfizer are hopeful about securing an EUA by the end of the year.

Filed Under: clinical trials, Infectious Disease
Tagged With: coronavirus, covid-19, United Kingdom

About The Author

Chris Newmarker

Chris Newmarker is the executive editor of WTWH Media life science's news websites and publications including MassDevice, Medical Design & Outsourcing and more. A professional journalist of 18 years, he is a veteran of UBM (now Informa) and The Associated Press whose career has taken him from Ohio to Virginia, New Jersey and, most recently, Minnesota. He’s covered a wide variety of subjects, but his focus over the past decade has been business and technology. He holds bachelor’s degrees in journalism and political science from Ohio State University. Connect with him on LinkedIn or email at cnewmarker@wtwhmedia.com.