Coronavirus vaccine: WHO to issue guidelines on proposed use of human challenge trials
- Advocates say tests in which volunteers are deliberately infected with the pathogen that causes Covid-19 will help to speed up the development of a vaccine for it
- But some scientists are concerned about the ethical and medical implications of using such methods
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is planning to issue guidelines this month on a controversial approach to artificially expose volunteers to the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 in a bid to speed up the process of developing a vaccine.
With pressure mounting to produce a vaccine for the deadly disease, some scientists and activists are advocating the use of human challenge trials (HCT), in which healthy, young volunteers are deliberately infected with the virus to test the efficacy of vaccine candidates.
Supporters say the trials will accelerate the development of a vaccine, but opponents are concerned about the ethical and medical implications of using such methods.
WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said the UN health agency was planning to issue the guidelines in the next few weeks.
Peter Smith, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and one of the co-authors of a paper published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases in March that kick-started the discussion of HCT for Covid-19, said scientists were hoping to greatly shrink the length of phase 3 clinical trials.
“Phase 3 trials generally take several years. The hope is to reduce this time for Covid-19 vaccines to around six months, but this will depend on the size of the trial and the transmission rate in participants,” he said.
