Story at a glance
- Greffex’s CEO said if the vaccine gets government approval the company will give it away to the hardest hit countries.
- The vaccine will move on to animal testing.
- More than 2,100 people have died and more than 75,000 have been infected.
A genetic engineering company based in Houston claims to have finished developing a vaccine for the deadly coronavirus.
The Houston Business Journal reports scientists at Greffex Inc. completed a vaccine this week, according to the company’s president and CEO John Price.
The report says the vaccine will move to animal testing with the Food and Drug Administration. Countries like China and Vietnam have their own agencies to carry out their testing regulations.
Price told the Houston Business Journal that Greffex did not use a living or killed virus for its vaccine. Greffex’s treatments reportedly use adenovirus-based vector vaccines, which are widely used 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 KHOU 11.
The vaccine is the result of an $18.9 million contract Greffex received in September of last year from the National Institute of Health’s National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Price said if the vaccine is able to get government approval, the company will give the vaccine away to the hardest hit countries.
The coronavirus has left more than 2,100 people dead and more than 75,000 infected, with the majority of cases taking place inside mainland China.
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