Johnson & Johnson on Wednesday announced that they are working on developing coronavirus vaccine for the deadly virus that has killed more than 170 people in China according to the latest reports.
The experimental Ebola vaccine developed previously by Johnson & Johnson is now being administrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. The same technology behind the Ebola vaccine will be used to develop a vaccine against coronavirus.
The global coalition set up to fight epidemic diseases has backed three separate research teams to start working on potential vaccines against coronavirus.
A research team at the University of Queensland, Australia and drug developers Inovio Pharma and Moderna will conduct the research on coronavirus vaccine.
Whether the experimental Ebola treatment by Gilead Sciences could be used against coronavirus is currently being assessed.
Johnson & Johnson has also donated its HIV drug Prezcobix to China to develop a treatment for the coronavirus infection.
The biggest jump in coronavirus death toll has been reported in China as the death toll rises to 170 from 132 in a single day. Currently, 7,783 people are affected across 19 countries.
Dr. Mike Ryan, the head of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Programme said
, “the whole world needs to be on alert”. Australian scientists have managed to recreate the copy of the virus which raises the hope that it could be used for an early detection test.The US, Australia, and Japan have evacuated their citizens from the epicenter Wuhan and the citizens will be quarantined or isolated in their homeland for around two weeks. Coronavirus infection is confirmed in three Japanese citizens who were evacuated from Wuhan, which deepens the fears about a global contagion.
The respiratory illnesses caused by coronavirus infection can be as deadly as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) reported in 2003 and 2012 respectively. Scientists are racing to develop the coronavirus vaccine as soon as possible.
Editor’s Note; Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, Death toll rises to 170, J&J to use the same technology behind Ebola Virus vaccine.