People will be paid around £4,500 (N2.3m) in return for exposing themselves to the virus which causes Covid-19 for scientific research.
The ‘human challenge trial’ will take place in the UK and involve an initial 17 days in quarantine then follow-ups for a year.
Ninety volunteers, aged between 18 and 30, will be given the smallest amount of virus needed to cause infection via drops in the nose in a very small volume of fluid – about a fifth of a millilitre.
They will have to have no previous history or symptoms of Covid-19, no underlying health conditions and no known adverse risk factors for Covid-19 such as diabetes or being overweight.
The volunteers have not yet been selected – people are to send in their details if interested. Read the formal call for volunteers here .
Professor Sir Terence Stephenson, chairman of the Health Research Authority (HRA), defended paying the volunteers thousands of pounds to take part.
He said: ‘People are rewarded for being in those studies, or compensated. ‘The sum is about £4,500 but that covers the initial stay and follow-up.’
He added: “The initial stay involves quite an imposition on a young person – 17 days in quarantine and you cannot be visited by any member of your family or friend or relative.
‘For the first £1,500 for 17 days we’ve got something like £88 a day, which I don’t think anyone would sense was a ridiculous coercion or inducement.’
Experts hope the study will give doctors a greater understanding of the virus and help with vaccine and treatment development.
Chief Investigator Dr Chris Chiu, from the Department of Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London, said: ‘We are asking for volunteers aged between 18 and 30 to join this research endeavour to help us to understand how the virus infects people and how it passes so successfully between us. Our eventual aim is to quickly test which vaccines and treatments work best in beating this disease.’
The Government has invested £33.6 million in the first-of-its-kind study for this virus, due to start in weeks.
The strain of the virus volunteers will be infected with will initially be the original one circulating in the UK, rather than any of the new variants, although this could be changed as the study continues.
Medics will be on hand to monitor the effects of infection on volunteers and care for them if needed.
As soon as people start shedding virus from their nose or start developing symptoms of Covid-19, they will be given the antiviral drug Remdesvir. But the intention isn’t to keep this drug in this study design because researchers believe the infections can be very mild and won’t require the drug, and adding remdesivir potentially gives additional complications.
The study is being delivered through a partnership between the government’s Vaccines Taskforce, Imperial College London, the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and clinical company hVIVO.
It was announced today, with Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng saying: ‘Researchers and scientists around the world have made incredible progress in understanding Covid-19 and developing critical vaccines to protect people.
‘While there has been very positive progress in vaccine development, we want to find the best and most effective vaccines for use over the longer term.
‘These human challenge studies will take place here in the UK and will help accelerate scientists’ knowledge of how coronavirus affects people and could eventually further the rapid development of vaccines.’
Interim Chair of the Vaccines Taskforce Clive Dix said: ‘We expect these studies to offer unique insights into how the virus works and help us understand which promising vaccines offer the best chance of preventing the infection.’
