England will become the first country in the world to deliberately infect healthy volunteers with COVID-19 in a human challenge study. The country’s medical ethics body approved the trial on Wednesday.
The $ 47 million study, funded by the UK government, will play a key role in continuing the development of effective coronavirus vaccines and treatments, officials said.
The first challenge study is expected to begin within the next month, with up to 90 carefully selected, healthy volunteers aged 18-30 years. They will be compensated for their time.
During the trial, the volunteers will be exposed to the smallest amount of virus needed to cause infection, in a ‘safe and controlled environment’ to better understand its consequences. The study uses the version of the virus that has been spreading in the UK since March 2020, not the new variants.
Officials noted that medics and scientists would closely monitor participants 24 hours a day, stressing that the March 2020 strain “has a low risk in young healthy adults.”
They hope to identify the smallest amount of viruses needed to cause infection. The trial will also help doctors and scientists understand how the immune system responds to the virus and to identify factors that influence how it is transmitted.
“Although there has been a lot of positive progress in the development of vaccines, we want to find the best and most effective vaccines that can be used in the long term,” Kwasi Kwarteng, Business Secretary, said in a statement. “These human challenge studies will take place here in the UK and will help accelerate scientists’ knowledge of how coronavirus affects humans and ultimately can promote the rapid development of vaccines.”
The controversial study is different from typical vaccine trials, in which participants receive a vaccine or placebo and are then told to tackle their daily lives. In that case, researchers expect that some volunteers will eventually be naturally exposed to the virus.
Challenge trials, however, guarantee exposure in the hopes of speeding up the results. It has been used in the past to treat diseases such as malaria, typhus, cholera, norovirus and flu.
After the first trial, a small number of volunteers could be given vaccine candidates who have passed clinical trials to identify which are most effective. This week, the UK reached its target of vaccinating 15 million people with their first dose.
“We have secured a number of safe and effective vaccines for the UK, but it is vital that we continue to develop new vaccines and treatments for COVID-19,” Clive Dix, interim chairman of the Vaccines Taskforce, told BBC News said. “We expect these studies to provide unique insights into how the virus works and help us understand which promising vaccines offer the best chance of preventing the infection.”