UK to infect volunteers with coronavirus in trials for early vaccine

The first trials to deliberately infect people with the coronavirus to accelerate the development of vaccines could occur in the UK next year as part of an agreement reached by the government.

Britain signed a contract with Open Orphan Plc and its London-based unit, hVivo, that paves the way for human challenge trials, the company said on Tuesday. The plan is to manufacture the virus and conduct a study to determine how much of the pathogen to expose volunteers to in the trials.

The tests, backed by 33.6 million pounds ($43 million) in government funding, would be carried out at the Royal