Australian Scientists Conduct Milestone Lab Trials.

Scientists in Australia have been begun tests on two potential coronavirus vaccines supplied by Oxford University (UK) and US company Inovio Pharmaceuticals which have been cleared for animal testing by the World Health Organisation.

Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), which said its tests would be the first comprehensive pre-clinical trials of the vaccines to use an animal model, acknowledged that the speed and level of global co-operation that led to this stage had been unprecedented.

"Normally it takes about one-to-two years to get to this point and we've in fact shortened that to a period of a couple of months," said Dr Rob Grenfell from the CSIRO.

One option, developed by the University of Oxford, is a vector vaccine. It uses a "defective" virus to introduce the proteins of the coronavirus to the immune system and induce a response.

"But they're not able to replicate... so there's no possibility of becoming ill through this particular vaccine," said Prof Trevor Drew, director of the Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Victoria, where the testing is being carried out on ferrets, which contract the virus in a similar way to humans.

The first results from the animal tests could be revealed as early as June, the scientists said. If successful, the vaccines could then be moved into clinical trials that could be conducted at labs elsewhere.

Further information at www.csiro.au