Britain moves closer to Covid-19 vaccine trials that infect volunteers

If agreed, this would involve creating a human challenge study model that could be used should such trials gain ethical and safety approval from regulators

“Human challenge” trials of potential Covid-19 vaccines, where volunteers are deliberately infected with the disease, could become a reality after a British biotech firm said it was in advanced talks with the government to create and provide strains of the virus.
 

Preliminary work for the trials, which aim to speed up the process of determining the efficacy of a vaccine candidate, is being carried out by hVIVO, a unit of pharmaceutical services group Open Orphan, the company said. “We are in discussions with numerous parties including the UK government around a Covid-19 challenge study, and once any of those contracts