VICTORIA -- Inside a lab on southern Vancouver Island, scientists are searching for a cure to a crisis sweeping across the globe.
At the Immuno Precise Antibodies Laboratories in Victoria, experts are attempting to get ahead of COVID-19, a potentially deadly and mutating illness.
"We are working on coronavirus," said Victoria-based Immuno Precise president, Dr. Jennifer Bath.
The contract research organization, with labs in North American and Europe, is tasked with finding a longer-term cure for COVID-19.
Immuno Precise is hired by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to discover and develop treatments before passing them off to other companies for clinical trials.
Scientists says they have already witnessed this new virus mutating, and thus need to come up with an antibody that has a broad ability to treat people.
"We are really, really focused on something that will provide a long-term curative value,” said Dr. Bath.
Researchers are also attempting to develop a preventative vaccine for the virus.
Immuno Precise says it began its work on COVID-19 in early February.
The company says in a few weeks some antibodies could be tested as a lead candidate for further trials, but clinical trials could take a year.
Experts say developing a vaccine ready for the public will take even longer than that.
As of Wednesday, there were 231 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in B.C., 16 of which were located in the Island Health region.
