Just don't expect pan-coronavirus vaccines to be available during the current surge of Covid's highly transmissible omicron variant. "That same thing is going on right now ," Fauci said. The same observation applies to the mRNA vaccine technology behind Pfizer and Moderna's Covid vaccines: The first mRNA vaccines were tested on mice in the 1990s, and were simply too expensive and difficult to scale until recently. Rather, it relies on "clinical research investments" made decades before the Covid pandemic. "There's a lot of investment, not only in improving the vaccines that we have for SARS-CoV-2, but a lot of work… to develop the next generation of vaccines, particularly universal coronavirus vaccines," Fauci said at the hearing.Īccording to Fauci, the technology behind these vaccine efforts isn't new.
It would still need to undergo phase 2 and phase 3 trials before advancing further. The Walter Reed vaccine, termed SpFN, completed its first phase of human trials last month, according to Defense One. Department of Defense's Walter Reed Army Institute of Research announced its own development of a vaccine that, in pre-clinical trials, "not only elicits a potent immune response but may also provide broad protection against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern as well as other coronaviruses." In April 2021, Duke University researchers announced that their pan-coronavirus vaccine was "100% effective in non-human tests including testing on primates." The study noted "success in primates is very relevant to humans."įive months later, Duke and two other academic institutions - the University of Wisconsin and Boston-based Brigham and Women's Hospital - received a total of roughly $36.3 million to fund the continued development of pan-coronavirus vaccines.Īnd in December, the U.S.
There's no set timeline for such a vaccine to become publicly available, but multiple research efforts are underway - with promising early results. "The importance of developing a pan-coronavirus vaccine, namely one that would be effective against all SARS-CoV-2 variants, and ultimately against all coronaviruses, becomes even more apparent," Fauci told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee. Non-Covid coronaviruses have been responsible for diseases like SARS and MERS over the past two decades, alongside many common cold infections. Longer term, Fauci said, the development of a universal coronavirus vaccine could help prevent the world's next pandemic.
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