At least 2,200 deaths have been reported since the coronavirus outbreak and now a Texas-based company has reportedly created a vaccine for the deadly virus.
Scientists at Greffex Inc., which has a corporate headquarters in Houston, completed the vaccine this week, according to the company’s president and CEO John Price, the New York Post reports.
Now the vaccine will move to animal testing by the FDA here in the U.S. and similar government agencies in China as well as any other heavily affected countries.
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For necessary safety reasons, Greffex did not use a living or killed virus to form the vaccine, Price said. Instead, the company used adenovirus-based vector vaccines, which are widely employed against various infectious diseases or cancers.
“The trick in making a vaccine is can you scale the vaccine that you’ve made to be able to make a certain number of doses, can you test that vaccine quickly and efficiently and then can you get it into patients,” Price told Houston news outlet KHOU 11. “And that’s where we have an edge as well on the other companies that are out there.”
The vaccine is the product of an $18.9 million contract Greffex received in September 2019 from the National Institute of Health’s National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The contract is aimed at fighting infectious threats, according to the Houston Business Journal reported.
If the vaccine wins government approval, Greffex said that he will give it away for free to the hardest-hit countries, according to Price.
Worldwide, more than 75,700 people have been infected with the coronavirus and all but 11 of the fatalities have occurred in mainland China.
We’ll keep you posted on any updates, Roomies.
