A potential coronavirus vaccine funded by Bill Gates is set to begin testing in people, with the first patient expected to get it today.
For Inovio's vaccine study, the company is enrolling up to 40 healthy adult participants in Philadelphia, at the University of Pennsylvania's medical school, and in Kansas City, Missouri, at the Center for Pharmaceutical Research.
Each volunteer will receive two doses of the vaccine, four weeks apart. Inovio said it expects quick enrollment in the study and safety results by late summer. If those results are positive, the company will start another study focused on assessing the vaccine's efficacy against the virus.
Given the unprecedented global demand, any vaccine that proves to be safe and effective will face a major challenge in manufacturing.
Inovio said it was scaling up its production capabilities and aiming to have 1 million doses available by the end of 2020, which could be used in additional clinical trials or for emergencies.
Anthony Fauci, the longtime leader of the National Institutes of Health's infectious-disease unit, has repeatedly said it will take at least a year to know if any vaccine is safe and effective against the virus.
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