(coronavirus vaccine)
Human clinical studies of this drug developed by the Military Academy of Medical Sciences of the Asian country, where the outbreak of COVID-19 is believed to have started, now a pandemic
The Military Academy of Medical Sciences of the People’s Republic of China said on Tuesday that it had “successfully” developed the recombinant Coronavirus vaccine and noted that it is being prepared for “large-scale” production, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of National Defense.
The vaccine has been approved for the start of human clinical studies, in accordance with international standards and national regulations, the agency says.
Details in the Chinese clinical trial registration database show that a “Phase 1” test that will examine whether the experimental vaccine is safe in humans aims to recruit 108 healthy people to participate in the process between March 16. and on December 31.
The trial will be conducted by the Military Academy of Medical Sciences and biotech firm CanSino Biologics RIC, the Reuters agency reported.
The drug was developed within a month by a research team led by Dr. Chen Wei, renowned for her studies of the SARS and Ebola viruses. In fact, part of the work was based on the study of existing Ebola vaccines.
“The vaccine is the most powerful scientific weapon to end the Coronavirus,” Chen, 54, said in an appearance before the Chinese network CCTV, quoted by the Daily Mail.
“If China is the first country to invent such a weapon and we achieve our patents, that will demonstrate the progress of our science and the image of a giant country,” said the expert.
COVID-19, a new strain of Coronavirus, is believed to have emerged in December in central China’s Wuhan City. Since then, it has not stopped spreading around the world, becoming a pandemic.
Overall, 195,892 Coronavirus cases have been confirmed, although it is believed that the actual number could be much higher due to a lack of testing methods for the entire population, while 7,865 deaths and 80,840 recovered have been reported.
China, the most affected country, has 81,058 confirmed cases with 3,230 dead and 68,798 cured. While in Italy, the second-largest outbreak in the world, 31,506 cases have been confirmed with 2,503 deaths and 2,941 recovered.
But although China seems to have managed to contain the outbreak in its territory, the contagions do not stop growing in Europe and the virus is spreading throughout America.
In addition to China, other countries are developing vaccines against COVID-19.
Last Tuesday, March 17, the first volunteer received an injection with a messenger RNA that does not expose her to the virus, at the Kaiser Permanente Research Institute in Seattle, United States.
This vaccine candidate, known as mRNA-1273, was developed by the NIH and the Massachusetts-based biotech company Moderna Inc. There is no chance of participants being infected because the vaccines do not contain the Coronavirus itself.
This is explained in a paper from the University of Cambridge: “Unlike a normal vaccine, RNA vaccines work by introducing a sequence of mRNA (the molecule that tells cells what to build) that is encoded for a specific antigen of the disease, once produced within the body, the immune system recognizes the antigen, preparing to fight the real thing.”
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