- Various coronavirus vaccine development programs have advanced at a rapid pace, with several candidates proving that they’re safe and effective in pre-clinical and clinical trials.
- Some drugs are already approaching the final phases of human trials and could be ready in the coming months, but others have run into an unexpected problem: Not enough sick people.
- China is considering using some of the vaccine candidates on specific groups of people by the end of the year, even if the final trials haven’t been completed by then.
The coronavirus vaccine race has run into an unexpected problem. There might not be enough sick people for the final phases of some of the most advanced drug candidates to be completed as early as initially planned. Researchers from Oxford, who hoped their candidate might be ready for use as soon as September, now have to face the prospect of delaying it. Oxford will inoculate 10,000 volunteers during the next phase, with half of them receiving the treatment candidate and half a placebo. But if not enough people around them are sick, the researchers might not be able to tell if the vaccine is effective at preventing infection. They’d still be able to study the immune response, look for neutralizing antibodies, and assess the safety of the compound. Still, that’s not enough data to release the final studies and receive the regulatory approval required for widespread immunization.
China, which contained its COVID-19 infection, faces that same issue. The country has as many as four different vaccine candidates in testing and not enough infected people. A recent study showed one of those vaccines works, and CanSino will run a trial in Canada next. Oxford also plans to partner with other countries, but this would still lead to delays. China, meanwhile, is considering going forward with vaccine deployment by the end of the year, even if the research isn’t finalized.
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China might starting using coronavirus vaccines this year, even if trials haven’t been completed originally appeared on BGR.com on Tue, 26 May 2020 at 20:09:05 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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