The Duke team emphasized that any expectation for a vaccine by the end of this year is overly optimistic.
"I think it's entirely possible that a vaccine will be approved this year, but not at scale," Ridley explained. "We might have some people vaccinated this year, but the average person won't be vaccinated."
Denny added, "We may have some good science by the end of the year and think we have some leading candidates. But manufacturing them to have it all administered, that's a tall order to be ready by the beginning of 2021."
There are currently no RNA vaccines on the market for any disease, the researchers said, but many are being tested in clinical trials, both for coronavirus and other diseases.
Most coronavirus vaccines being studied require two doses—including Moderna's RNA vaccine—but Ooi said the vaccine being developed by Duke-NUS and the pharmaceutical company Arcturus Therapeutics is different. So far, it appears this vaccine requires only one dose because it has a replicating effect that makes the vaccine "expand in the body," Ooi explained.
The vaccine will likely be the first of its kind to get this far in clinical trials if the trials proceed as expected.
