Coronavirus Vaccine Funded By Bill Gates Starts Human Trial
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Following his announcement last month of spending millions of dollars to help eradicate COVID-19, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates is all over the news again as one of his funded companies launched the human trial of a potential coronavirus vaccine.

As the COVID-19 cases continue to surge globally with 1,270,00 confirmed cases and more than 69,000 deaths as of Sunday, scientists are fast-tracking research for the vaccine and cure for COVID-19.

According to the data by JHU-WSE, there were already more than 336,000 cases with more than 9,600 deaths in the United States.

On Monday, researchers of a small Pennsylvania biotech company began administering the vaccine to its first healthy volunteer after having received regulatory clearance to start clinical testing.

In a recent article, the experimental vaccine developed by Inovio Pharmaceuticals is backed by one of the wealthiest people in the world through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

Inovio's vaccine, called INO-4800, is the second potential coronavirus vaccine to start human trials in the US. The first human trial of a coronavirus vaccine called mRNA-1273, developed by biotechnology company Moderna Therapeutics and funded by the National Institutes of Health, has commenced on March 16.

READ: Pittsburgh Coronavirus Vaccine: Potential Immunity Vaccine Against COVID-19

In a report by Latin Post, four patients have volunteered to receive shots of the mRNA-1273 vaccine at the Kaiser Permanente research facility in Seattle, Washington.

The mRNA-1273 vaccine contains a harmless genetic code copied from coronavirus, but experts stressed the vaccine could not cause COVID-19.

In another article, Gates said the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would work with seven makers of a possible vaccine to build these factories. On Thursday, the billionaire announced the efforts in an appearance on "The Daily Show With Trevor Noah" Thursday, acknowledging that billions of dollars would be wasted on vaccines that won't take off.

"Our early money can accelerate things," Gates said. "Even though we'll end up picking at most two of them, we're going to fund factories for all seven, just so that we don't waste time in serially saying which vaccine works and then building the factory."

Inovio's vaccine study will hopefully test 40 healthy adult participants, now being enrolled in Philadelphia, at the University of Pennsylvania's medical school, and in Kansas City, Missouri, at the Center for Pharmaceutical Research.

Each of the volunteers will receive two doses of the vaccine, four weeks apart.

The biotech firm expects quick enrollment in the study and safety results by late summer. Upon showing favorable results, the company will start another study focused on assessing the vaccine's efficacy against the virus.

As the demand for a coronavirus vaccine surges, any vaccine that proves to be safe and effective will face significant challenges in manufacturing.

According to Inovio, through Bill Gates' funding, it is working on scaling up its production capabilities and aiming to have 1 million coronavirus vaccine doses available by the end of the year.