An Anglo-Italian partnership is on the frontline in the development of a coronavirus vaccine, which could be ready in September, researchers said. The venture brings together Italian company Advent-IRBM — based in the city of Pomezia, south of Rome — and the Jenner Institute of the University of Oxford. The team has accelerated human testing of the vaccine, which will start in the U.K. at the end of April. “In light of the data acquired in the last few weeks, the first batch of the vaccine will leave for England, where tests will start on 550 healthy volunteers,” said Piero Di Lorenzo, the CEO and founder of Advent-IRBM. Di Lorenzo explained that the team has decided to move forward with human tests after they confirmed the “non-toxicity” of the vaccine, which resulted from effective laboratory tests. “If the phase 1 of clinical trials is successful, we expect to have the vaccine ready for use to vaccinate health personnel and law enforcement officers as early as September,” Di Lorenzo said. Sarah Gilbert, a vaccinology expert at Oxford University, also expressed optimism on the results of the trials. On Saturday, she that she is “80% confident” that the vaccine being developed by her team would work. Safety trials are due to begin soon with further trials around the world. Professor Gilbert said lockdown made testing harder when the virus is not spreading. But, if one of the countries where trials are taking place “turns out to have a high rate of virus transmission then we will get our efficacy results very quickly, so that is the strategy for reducing the time”. She added the most optimistic time to get a working vaccine was September commenting: “Yes and we have to go for that. American philanthropist Bill Gates insisted he was prepared to “waste” billions manufacturing vaccines to prevent delays for any that will work.