Working on a COVID-19 vaccine

• By Jonathan Banks

A University of Oxford consortium behind one of the leading vaccine candidates for the coronavirus selected Oxford Biomedica as its lead manufacturer. I was allowed access to photograph at the new OXBOX £20 million facility called Ox Box on the Oxford Business Park.

The Jenner Institute at Oxford is currently working on its vaccine candidate with clinical trials about to begin, and Oxford Biomedical is the lead producer should the human trials prove successful.

The Oxford vaccine candidate relies on adenoviral vector technology, ChAdOx1, developed at the Jenner Institute, in Oxford. It is seen as one of the most promising vaccine technologies for COVID-19 as ChAdOx1 has been shown to generate a strong immune response from one dose and it has demonstrated a good safety profile in pre-clinical and clinical trials conducted to date.

Britain has agreed a deal with the World Health Organisation to work with 20 other countries and global organisations including France, Germany and Italy to find a vaccine and to share the results.

The British government has pledged £20 million in funding with Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, saying “We are going to back them to the hilt and give them every resource they need to give them the best chance of success”.

Oxford Biomedica is a leading, fully integrated, gene and cell therapy group focused on developing life changing treatments for serious diseases.

John Dawson, Chief Executive Officer of Oxford Biomedica, said: “As an established clinical and commercial manufacturer of viral vectors, we are very pleased to be in a strong position in terms of capacity and capabilities to support the important and urgent efforts of the Consortium led by the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford, to develop and scale up manufacturing of this promising vaccine candidate for COVID-19.”