Combo flu and Covid jab may be ready for autumn, says Irish head of vaccine testing firm

'Less dangerous' Omicron variant effectively marking the end of the pandemic, head of Open Orphan Cathal Friel says

Cathal Friel, executive chairman, Open Orphan, and Elaine Sullivan, who joined the board as a non-executive director

Pharma companies are working at full pelt to deliver a combo Covid vaccine and flu jab for next autumn, the executive chairman of one of Ireland’s and Britain’s leading testers of vaccines and antivirals has said.        

Cathal Friel heads up Open Orphan, the Irish-founded €168m stock market-listed firm that conducts human vaccine trials and employs about 100 virology experts in London.  

He said because the Covid virus is developing in a typical way means work on vaccines and flus can go hand-in-hand with the aim of delivering a one jab that delivers a Covid booster with a flu vaccine before next winter, Mr Friel said.  

Every big pharma company in the world is looking to next autumn to deliver “a combo flu and Covid vaccine” because flus and rhinoviruses kill many people, he said.

Shares in Open Orphan reached an all-time high in mid-April last year, but have since eased as the threat posed by Covid to economies has appeared to ebb.    

Human trials

Its main unit, called hVivo, conducts human trials on behalf of pharma companies on all types of vaccines, and not just Covid vaccines, before their approval by regulators, in a facility in Whitechapel in London. It has in the past secured a contract from the British government.

Mr Friel also said much shorter isolation times is justified for people falling ill or alerted as close contacts because the Omicron variant is less dangerous than earlier strains and because a large part of the Irish population is vaccinated. 

He said the State has to get through “the next three of four weeks of probable chaos” before people realise a shorter isolation period is warranted, Mr Friel said.

Similar to Germany’s plans, France on Monday shortened the time people who test positive for Covid-19 must isolate to as little as five days if they are fully vaccinated and test negative at that point. 

Mr Friel's comments come amid widespread concerns about the likely high rates of illnesses affecting staff working in hospitals, in particular, this month and in February from the variant. 

Omicron marking end of pandemic

He said Open Orphan was a world leader and uses human trials and focuses exclusively on testing for vaccines and antivirals for Covid and flus. The "less dangerous" Omicron variant was effectively marking the end of the pandemic, Mr Friel said.

“The reason I say that is that people who get the disease, it stays in the upper respiratory tract, in the nose and the throat, whereas Delta and the other versions of Covid would have become a chest infection, and chest infections are dangerous,” he said.

“There will be a big spike of people out of work because everyone is testing and I am hoping governments around the world will follow the Americans to say that if you are positive with Omicron or Covid you can self-isolate for five days,” he said.

The Open Orphan unit specialises in giving small groups the vaccine or a placebo. Vaccinated people are sent home and are recalled after a month to be exposed and  monitored in the residential facility to see if the vaccine works. The volunteers receive a tax-free payment of £3,500 (€4,100).