David Stobbe / StobbePhoto.ca

By Brent Bosker

COVID-19 vaccine at VIDO-InterVac on track for human trials this fall

Jul 15, 2020 | 12:53 PM

Work on a COVID-19 vaccine continues to show encouraging results at Saskatoon’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization — International Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVac) at the University of Saskatchewan.

“We’ve now tested our vaccine in a second animal model, in hamsters, and confirmed the results we’ve seen in ferrets. So that is very, very encouraging,” Dr. Volker Gerdts, the organization’s director and CEO, told Gormley on Wednesday.

“We’re also now doing further safety testing to ensure the vaccine that we are developing is safe for use in humans.”

VIDO-InterVac’s vaccine candidate is among nearly two dozen in various stages of testing around the world.

Gerdts says VIDO-InterVac is locked in to begin testing its treatment on humans this fall.

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“What we’re doing right now is we’re manufacturing the clinical-grade material that you need to have to go into humans,” he said. “That is being done by special manufacturers under very, very special conditions — essentially an absolutely clean, sterile facility where you produce the vaccine components. Then they get mixed together into these vials and then they go into the volunteers.

“That’s a very complicated process and the regulators want good oversight of that.”

In normal situations, human trials of vaccines happen in three phases.

In Phase 1, researchers inject the vaccine candidate into humans and watch for unwanted reactions to it.

The second phase involves a larger number of volunteers. Again, researchers look for unwanted reactions, but they also watch to see if the vaccine is doing what they expect.

The final phase involves a large trial at multiple sites with thousands of subjects. The idea is to see how well the vaccine performs in the face of a disease.

But the process to develop a safe and effective vaccine is on a fast track in the times of COVID-19. Gerdts said the VIDO-InterVac trial will combine the first two phases.

If the vaccine doesn’t show any side effects, Gerdts said it’s possible the regulator could give permission to skip the final phase and release it to targeted population groups, such as frontline health-care workers.

“What is critical there is you have to demonstrate first that the vaccine is completely safe and that is what your Phase 1-Phase 2 trial will show,” Gerdts said.

The first human trial of a Canadian-produced vaccine began this week in Quebec. Gerdts said with vaccines at different stages of development around the world, it only bodes well in the fight against the virus.

“Really, what it means to Canadians is that we will have access to different vaccine technologies coming forward and that is a good thing,” he said.

“Not every vaccine is the same. Some work better than others, some are easier to manufacture than others (and) some can be produced at lower cost than others, so there is an advantage for Canadians to have different technologies coming forward.”