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ScienceEurope

Green light for 1st trial exposing volunteers to COVID

February 17, 2021

The UK's clinical ethics body has given approval for the first human challenge trial involving the coronavirus. Around 90 healthy, young participants will take part.

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A nurse passes a sign indicating a Covid-19 Vaccination Centre at the Royal Free Hospital in London
The trial could help the development of future vaccines against COVID-19Image: Dominic Lipinski/AFP

Healthy volunteers will be exposed to the coronavirus in a clinical trial, the government said Wednesday, following its approval by the country's medical ethics body.

The study will "help accelerate scientists' knowledgeof how coronavirus affects people," Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said.

It "could eventually further the rapid development of vaccines," Kwarteng added.

Human challenge trials or controlled human infection trials, which involve exposing volunteers to viruses in controlled environments, are fairly common in medicine. This will be the first such trial in the world involving COVID-19, however. It is set to begin within a month.

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Key facts about the study:

The trial will expose up to 90 volunteers between 18 and 30 years of age to COVID-19 in a controlled environment.

The study will first try to determine the smallest amount of virus needed to cause infection.

In a later phase, volunteers could then be given vaccines that have been proven effective before being exposed to the virus.

In order to make the trial as safe as possible, the most common version of the virus that has been circulating in England since March 2020 will be used rather than one of the new variants.

A variant that was first discovered in South Africa has shown resistance to certain vaccines.

Medics and scientists will be on hand 24 hours a day to ensure the safety of volunteers as well as monitor the effects of the virus.

The volunteers will also be compensated for taking part.

Researchers will work in partnership with London's Royal Free Hospital. Its secure clinical research facilities are specifically designed to contain the virus, the government said.

Who is behind the study?

The government's vaccines task force, Imperial College London, the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and clinical company hVIVO, which has pioneered viral human challenge models, are working on the study.

The study has been backed by £33.6 million ($46.6 million, €38.6 million) in government funding.

Volunteers needed

Chief investigator Chris Chiu from Imperial College London put a call out for volunteers to come forward:

"Our eventual aim is to establish which vaccines and treatments work best in beating this disease, but we need volunteers to support us in this work."

kmm/msh (Reuters, AFP)