It sounds tempting: a payment of £3,500 to spend two weeks relaxing in front of the television, playing video games or catching up on some reading. There is a catch, however — you will be infected with a coronavirus and banned from physical contact with the outside world.
As part of a global experiment, up to 24 people at a time will be paid to be infected with a coronavirus in a $2bn (£1.53bn) race to find a vaccine for Covid-19.
Hvivo, the company that runs the quarantine unit in a laboratory in east London, is one of more than 20 firms and public sector organisations taking part in a global effort to develop a vaccine for the virus, which has killed more than 3,500 people. The aim is to have an injection that could be used next winter to protect the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.
Open Orphan (LON:ORPH) was founded in 2017, with the goal of rapidly building Europe’s leading pharma services company by a management team with extensive industry and financial expertise. The company comprises of two commercial specialist CRO services businesses (Venn Life Sciences and hVIVO) and is also developing a genomics data platform business (Genomic Health Data).