A team at Britain’s Oxford University dosed the first volunteers in a trial of their vaccine – called “ChAdOx1 nCoV-19” – while Italy’s ReiThera, Germany’s Leukocare and Belgium’s Univercells said they were working together on another potential shot and aimed to start trials in a few months.
THE TRIAL WILL BE CARRIED OUT ON HEALTHY ADULTS
The Oxford scientists said last week that large-scale production capacity was being put in place to make millions of doses of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 shot, even before trials show whether it is effective.
Oxford University begins human trials WATCH
They said on Thursday that the main focus of initial tests is “to find out if this vaccine is going to work against coronavirus, if it won’t cause unacceptable side effects and if it induces good immune responses”.
In its first phase, the trial will be carried out on healthy adults between the age of 18 to 55. Once the safety is ascertained, it will be extended to elder people including that of Black and Asian minority ethnic (BAME) groups, including Indians.