The UK government said on Monday that it would give more than 20 million pounds ($26 million) to develop a new vaccine against the deadly coronavirus and other infectious diseases
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd February, 2020) The UK government said on Monday that it would give more than 20 million Pounds ($26 million) to develop a new vaccine against the deadly coronavirus and other infectious diseases.
"The new funding will support work developing new vaccines for epidemics, including their three new programmes to develop vaccines against the novel coronavirus, 2019-nCoV," the statement read.
The funds will be used by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). According to the CEPI head, the organization is planning to move to the new developments' clinical testing phase within the next 16 weeks.
"The earliest stage of clinical trials (Phase I), to establish the safety of investigational vaccines, would take around two to four months," CEO Richard Hatchett said, as quoted by the statement.
The new strain of coronavirus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan last December and has since spread to more than 20 countries. The virus has so far killed 361 people in China and infected over 17,000 others. On Sunday, the first coronavirus-related death outside China was confirmed in the Philippines.
