Companies announce clinical trials for vaccine against China virus

At least four companies say they are working 'very rapidly' to find a vaccine.

BS : Clinical trials for a vaccine against the new virus sweeping China could be carried out in the summer, the head of an anti-epidemic coalition said on Thursday, as different companies announced research into the disease.

"We can announce that we have three partnerships to develop vaccines against the novel coronavirus," Richard Hatchett, chief executive of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), said in Davos.

"Our goal is to have these vaccines developed very rapidly and to move very rapidly to begin clinical trials, perhaps as early as the summer," Hatchett said during the annual World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort town.

A fourth company, Novavax, which has worked on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), said earlier it had also initiated development of a vaccine candidate.

There is no vaccine or antiviral treatment against the novel coronavirus detected in China, which has killed 18 people so far and has now spread internationally.

Hatchett said the three partnerships were with Inovio Pharmaceuticals, a US-based company, the University of Queensland in Australia and Moderna, another US biotech firm.

Moderna is working with the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a US government agency.

Shares in Inovio jumped 6.68 per cent on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, while Moderna stock was up 1.37 per cent and by a total of 6.5 per cent over two sessions.

Shares in other biotech companies also rose in expectation of growing interest in a vaccine against the virus.