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22 April 2020updated 06 Oct 2020 9:45am

Head of Imperial team developing vaccine says he’s “very confident“ one will be found

By Samuel Horti

The head of the Imperial College London team developing a coronavirus vaccine has said the virus is “not as difficult a target” as other infections and that he’s “very confident” a vaccine will be found.

Professor Robin Shattock told the Today programme that the virus was relatively stable, which means it should be “very easy to lock our sights” on a target.

“I think we are very confident that some vaccines will come through and work. There are so many groups working on different approaches and the virus is not as difficult a target as some of the things we have seen before.

“The main issue is that it doesn’t seem to be changing very much. So it is a target we have in our sights and it is very different from influenza, which changes every year,” he said.

Yesterday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said a government-backed clinical trial in Oxford would begin testing its vaccine on humans this week.

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