In a major development in the fight to find a vaccine for Covid -19, clinical trials of a vaccine for the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronaviruss on humans was completed by Russian scientists. This made Russia the first nation to complete such clinical trials for a Covid-19 vaccine.
Researchers working on the project have said that the effectiveness of the vaccine on humans have been found to be good, said reports.
The 13-million mark has been crossed for the total number of coronavirus infections globally while resulting in the death of more than 570,000.
Pharmaceutical companies and scientists are working overtime and are under pressure to develop a vaccine for the deadly disease as soon as possible specifically considering the scale the Covid-19 pandemic is assuming at a very fast pace. Currently there are more than 100 vaccines hat all across the world that are under development and are in various development stages including in countries such as India, Britain, China, the United States, Russia and Israel.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are at least 21 vaccines currently that are undergoing key trial stages.
For example, late stage of Phase III trials has been reached by the vaccine candidates from China's Sinovac Biotech, China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) and AstraZeneca's experimental Covid-19 vaccine. Those leading the race at present include Moderna, AstraZeneca, BioNTech, Novavax, Sinovac, CanSino Biologics and Inovio Pharmaceuticals.
Vadim Tarasov, the director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Biotechnology, told Sputnik, that the clinical trials on volunteers for the first coronavirus vaccine of the world at Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University has been successfully completed.
Tarasov added that the scientists will discharge the first group of volunteers on Wednesday and the second group on July 20.
Trials in the university are being carried out for the vaccine produced by Russia’s Gamalei Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology and they started on June 18.
“Sechenov University has successfully completed tests on volunteers of the world’s first vaccine against coronavirus,” Tarasov said.
Talks with Russia, Brazil, Chile and Saudi Arabia are being held by Chinese vaccine developer CanSino Biologics for a Phase III trial of its experimental Covid-19 vaccine, said the company’s co-founder.
Scientists in China are finding it difficult to conduct large-scale vaccine trials in the country because it has been successful in controlling the coronavirus infection. However only a few countries have agreed to work with the Chinese company.
"We are contacting Russia, Brazil, Chile and Saudi Arabia (for the Phase III trial), and it's still in discussion," Qiu Dongxu, executive director and co-founder of CanSino, told an anti-viral drug development conference in Suzhou, in eastern China. The company is hopeful that trials for Phase III of the vaccine would begin "pretty soon" and it plans to include about 40,000 volunteers for the trials, he said.
The experimental vaccine Ad5-nCov, developed by the company is the first vaccine candidate that had successfully moved into the human testing phase in March. But currently the pace of development is slow compared to other potential vaccines in terms of trial progress.
(Source:www.business-standard.com)
Researchers working on the project have said that the effectiveness of the vaccine on humans have been found to be good, said reports.
The 13-million mark has been crossed for the total number of coronavirus infections globally while resulting in the death of more than 570,000.
Pharmaceutical companies and scientists are working overtime and are under pressure to develop a vaccine for the deadly disease as soon as possible specifically considering the scale the Covid-19 pandemic is assuming at a very fast pace. Currently there are more than 100 vaccines hat all across the world that are under development and are in various development stages including in countries such as India, Britain, China, the United States, Russia and Israel.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are at least 21 vaccines currently that are undergoing key trial stages.
For example, late stage of Phase III trials has been reached by the vaccine candidates from China's Sinovac Biotech, China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) and AstraZeneca's experimental Covid-19 vaccine. Those leading the race at present include Moderna, AstraZeneca, BioNTech, Novavax, Sinovac, CanSino Biologics and Inovio Pharmaceuticals.
Vadim Tarasov, the director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Biotechnology, told Sputnik, that the clinical trials on volunteers for the first coronavirus vaccine of the world at Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University has been successfully completed.
Tarasov added that the scientists will discharge the first group of volunteers on Wednesday and the second group on July 20.
Trials in the university are being carried out for the vaccine produced by Russia’s Gamalei Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology and they started on June 18.
“Sechenov University has successfully completed tests on volunteers of the world’s first vaccine against coronavirus,” Tarasov said.
Talks with Russia, Brazil, Chile and Saudi Arabia are being held by Chinese vaccine developer CanSino Biologics for a Phase III trial of its experimental Covid-19 vaccine, said the company’s co-founder.
Scientists in China are finding it difficult to conduct large-scale vaccine trials in the country because it has been successful in controlling the coronavirus infection. However only a few countries have agreed to work with the Chinese company.
"We are contacting Russia, Brazil, Chile and Saudi Arabia (for the Phase III trial), and it's still in discussion," Qiu Dongxu, executive director and co-founder of CanSino, told an anti-viral drug development conference in Suzhou, in eastern China. The company is hopeful that trials for Phase III of the vaccine would begin "pretty soon" and it plans to include about 40,000 volunteers for the trials, he said.
The experimental vaccine Ad5-nCov, developed by the company is the first vaccine candidate that had successfully moved into the human testing phase in March. But currently the pace of development is slow compared to other potential vaccines in terms of trial progress.
(Source:www.business-standard.com)