Coronavirus: clinical trial begins on third vaccine candidate in China
- It targets the initial strain of the virus and other mutations that have emerged as it has spread around the globe
- Volunteers given the shot last week are all healthy adults aged between 18 and 59, and two more trials will follow
According to researchers involved in the latest trial, “tens of volunteers” in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province were given the vaccine candidate on Thursday and it had already shown “positive results”.
Developed by a team led by Qin Chuan at the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control in Beijing, it targets the initial strain of the virus and other mutations that have emerged as it has spread around the world.
Preclinical tests on non-human primates found that the potential vaccine, when given at a sufficient dose, could provide “complete protection against Sars-CoV-2” strains in different countries with minimal side-effects, Qin and his team wrote in a non-peer reviewed paper released on preprint service medRxiv.org on Sunday. Sars-CoV-2 refers to the virus that causes Covid-19.
