What all-hands-on-deck looks like when medical researchers take on COVID

I’m biased. In New York City, I work for the University of Oxford in affiliation with the medical sciences fundraising team in England.

I'm itchy. I want to do something to end this public health crisis and relieve the suffering. Let me lay out what the University of Oxford is doing in vaccine development, drug discovery, and ventilator innovation that Americans can join to support by giving in the U.S.

I’m astonished by what Oxford’s endeavoring to do and achieving so rapidly to end this public health crisis. To get the scope of it, take it all in here at this Oxford Coronavirus microsite.

If only there were a vaccine that would protect us all from this

Oxford has a vaccine candidate, the COVID-19 adenovirus - a vector virus - that has succeeded in animal trials. Phase I of human trials will begin later in April. There are a number of vaccines being developed worldwide in university laboratories and at drug corporations to provide immunity against this novel coronavirus. Due to Oxford’s strength in vaccinology via its Jenner Institute researchers have responded with exceptional speed to the coronavirus pandemic. Oxford is committed to keeping the cost of the vaccine low, and making sure it's delivered to low- and middle-income countries rapidly.

The Jenner Institute is the largest university-based vaccine enterprise worldwide. Developing a vaccine usually takes 5 years. Since January, the number of Oxford labs marshaled to work on coronavirus has expanded to 92, which represents 1,300 scientists. There are hopes a successful vaccine could be approved in 12-to-18 months.

Researchers put out the call to recruit volunteers to be subjects in the clinical trial. Within five hours, 5,000 people volunteered. The goal was reached. If it goes according to plan, efficacy of the vaccine will be known by this Fall.

Leading this enormous effort are Prof. Adrian Hill, Prof. Sarah Gilbert, Prof. Peter Horby, and Prof. Andrew Pollard. This is medical research. We don’t know what the end of the clinical trials of the vaccine will yield. But this is what scientists do – they try and test. The vaccine trial will end when there’s a result.

I hope we can get this vaccine to everybody worldwide

At the same time that the University of Oxford’s vaccine is in clinical trials, it’s scoping sites worldwide to manufacture the vaccine. This requires substantial investments in an experimental vaccine that medical researchers hope will succeed. These kinds of capital investments must be prepared now to act quickly in case it does. As of this date, Oxford is targeting manufacturing sites in Italy, India and China. If the vaccine succeeds, it will then prepare to produce 1,000 single-dose vials, scaling up to 1 billion doses. A single dose has a high reliability factor and is not dependent on people returning to medical practitioners for subsequent doses, which would be a potential barrier for those living in developing nations and rural communities.

This is going to cost a lot of money

Yes, it is. Everyone needs to be a philanthropist now. Not one sector can carry this alone. The Jenner Institute has added medical researchers and repurposed additional buildings on campus to keep up the pace of discovery. The moment demands entrepreneurial thinking and support to sustain the intensity of this growing enterprise when there's no end in sight.

I wish I knew if I had the coronavirus so I could get on with my life

No kidding. That would make all of us breathe a sigh of relief, wouldn’t it? The Target Discovery Institute, the drug discovery unit at Oxford, is working on such a test to investigate monoclonal antibodies. It’s testing existing drugs. It’s creating new drugs.

Americans can donate to support these activities here: Americans for Oxford. The pull-down menu defaults to the Coronavirus Research Fund, which will direct your giving where it’s needed most. If you wish to support the vaccine and antibody tests, type in the text box: “For Immunology.”

Ventilators – what are we going to do?

We need more ventilators. A lot more. Throughout the States and worldwide. Oxford researchers in the Department of Engineering Sciences, in partnership with King's College London, created the prototype for OxVent. This ventilator, with an estimated cost of $1,300 to build each unit, uses “off the shelf” parts and can run on batteries – which will be vital in communities where power delivery is unstable. As bad as the coronavirus outbreak has been since January 2020, we must do all that we can to mitigate the impact on developing nations. With funding, OxVent scientists will be able to share specs for OxVent on open source platforms. They’ll be able to provide background expertise to teach practitioners worldwide how to build and use OxVents.

Oxford’s located in England, so how’s it going to benefit me and the world?

As Prof. Adrian Hill, the head of Oxford's Jenner Institute, said,

"This is a humanitarian effort.”

If the vaccine candidate succeeds – it’s science after all, it’s trial after trial – all of humanity will benefit.

Reaching beyond developed countries, Oxford has the world’s strongest network of medical centers capable of performing vaccine trials and distributing vaccines in low- and middle-income countries. For decades, through Oxford's Tropical Medicine & Global Health program in the Department of Medicine, Oxford has hosted major medical hubs in Thailand and Vietnam, and study sites in Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Nigeria, Kenya, Mozambique and the DRC. In 2014, Oxford led the rapid response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Why the University of Oxford?

Heritage and excellence.

The efficacy of Penicillin in fighting infection was proven at Oxford during World War II. Sir Howard Florey, the academic doing that research, was awarded a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1945. In 2019, Prof. Peter Ratcliffe of the Target Discovery Institute was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Oxford hosts the Jenner Vaccine Institute (founded, 2005). Oxford hosts the Target Drug Discovery Institute.

And, experience.

From Ebola to MERS, Oxford has one of the world’s best track records in emergency vaccine development, and an infrastructure usually found only in pharmaceutical companies.

Global recognition.

Oxford Medical Sciences has been ranked #1 in the world for seven years counting by the Times Education Supplement (UK). The University of Oxford is ranked the #1 university outside the U.S. by the same publication.

Americans can give here: Americans for Oxford The pull-down menu defaults to the Coronavirus Research Fund, which will direct your giving where it’s needed most. If you wish to support the vaccine and antibody tests type in the text box: “For Immunology.”

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