Canadian researchers are at least a year away from human clinical trials of vaccines for SARS, although they hope to shorten the development cycle by conducting those trials in the People's Republic of China.
“We'll know the results of our primate trials by the end of February. Our goal would be to go to [Guangdong Province in] China next winter,” Dr. Robert Brunham, director of the University of British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, said in an interview. If the vaccine works, it could be in use by 2005.
The SARS Accelerated Vaccine Initiative (SAVI), an international consortium led by the BC centre, is now conducting animal trials of 3 potential vaccines.
China hopes to start its own clinical trials of an indigenously developed whole killed vaccine in January, but Brunham says that shouldn't preclude trials of the Canadian–developed vaccine.
With SARS most likely to resurface in China, where it originated, it makes sense to conduct clinical trials there, Brunham says. “It would be helpful to Chinese authorities to demonstrate within Chinese populations that the vaccine is safe and would generate the right kind of immune responses.”
The researchers also like the fact that China can fast-track approvals so trials can be launched in about 300 days. This will also help SAVI construct an accelerated model for developing vaccines so that emerging public health needs can be addressed quickly. It now takes about 10 years for a vaccine to get on the market.
Concerns have been expressed that China is lax in implementing the World Medical Association's (WMA) standards for ethical research. In one such case it allowed a US-based researcher to inject live malaria parasites into HIV-infected people. But Brunham says SAVI won't proceed with trials that don't stand up to Western scrutiny.
It's important that Canadian researchers uphold WMA principles, says Dr. Kathleen Glass, an ethicist at McGill University. “You shouldn't be taking advantage of other people, like exposing them to risk, that you wouldn't be exposing your local population to.” — Wayne Kondro, Ottawa