Researchers from the “Senovac Biotechnology Laboratory” in Beijing said they had found a vaccine to protect against coronavirus, which had been shown to be useful in macaques of the Rakus family.
They added that the vaccine did not leave any visible side effects in the monkeys, and that the laboratory began human trials on April 16.
The researchers of the “Senovac Biotic” laboratory gave two different doses of the vaccine to a total of eight rhesus monkeys, and after three weeks, they inserted into the lungs of monkeys the dose of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the virus that causes Covid-19, through tubes below the trachea, and it did not hurt Any of them are fully infected.
The monkeys that gave the highest dose had a good response. After seven days of receiving the virus, the researchers found no traces of it in the pharynx or lungs of the monkeys.
Senovac’s senior manager of foreign regulatory affairs, Meng Wenning, said in press statements to local media that the results “give us a lot of confidence” that the vaccine will work in humans.
While the United Nations considers vaccine the only possible way to return to “normalcy”, there are seven out of about a hundred studies now in human clinical trials, according to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Similar experiments have already begun in the United States, and are scheduled to start at the end of this month in Germany, after obtaining the green light from the Federal Vaccines Authority.
The University of Oxford research has received support from the British government, and Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced Tuesday that trials for human volunteers will begin Thursday.
The experiment conducted by the Jenner Institute at Oxford University, in its first phase designed to assess the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine, includes up to 1112 volunteers, 551 of whom will receive a dose of the experimental vaccine, and the other half a placebo. Ten participants will receive two doses of the experimental vaccine at a four-week interval.
Professor Sarah Gilbert’s team estimated the chances of success at 80 percent, along with working to produce a million doses of it that will be available by September, to be distributed widely in the fall if the experiment is successful.
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