Amid the rising coronavirus COVID-19 cases in India and several other countries, positive news on initial trials of the University of Oxford’s potential coronavirus that has been licensed to AstraZeneca could be announced on Thursday (July 16). ITV’s political editor Robert Peston said that Phase III trials of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate began in June in Brazil. Peston said, citing sources, that Phase III trials involved thousands of human volunteers,
“I am hearing there will be positive news soon (perhaps tomorrow) on initial trials of the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine that is backed by AstraZeneca,” Peston said in a blog post.
“Apparently the vaccine is generating the kind of antibody and T-cell (killer cell) response that the researchers would hope to see. If the Oxford vaccine is proven effective, it could go into mass production as early as September,” he added.
Notably, several coronavirus COVID-19 vaccines are currently in various stages of testing worldwide, including in Britain, China, the US and India.
On Wednesday (July 15), the Russian defence ministry had announced that it had succeeded in developing a “safe” coronavirus vaccine following clinical trials on a group of volunteers. According to Russian defence ministry, 18 people had participated in the research and were discharged without “serious adverse events, health complaints, complications or side effects”.
US-based pharma giant Moderna Inc said on Tuesday that it is planning to start a late stage clinical trial for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate on or around July 27. Moderna is planning to conduct the trial at 87 study locations across the US.
US government researchers said on Tuesday that the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna Inc produced antibodies to the coronavirus in all patients who participated in an initial safety trial,
Indian pharma major Zydus announced on Wednesday that it has started human studies for its COVID-19 vaccine. Zydus is set to include over 1,000 subjects for human trials across multiple clinical study sites in India.
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