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German company BioNTech and US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced that they have begun the first group of human trials of a possible covid-19 vaccine, the two biotech companies said in a statement. It is the most advanced test in Germany and comes after the United Kingdom announced last week that Southampton University Hospital would start the first human test for a coronavirus vaccine.
Last week, BioNTech, based in Mainz, in the west of the country, obtained authorization in Germany to start conducting human tests. The candidate vaccine, BNT162, began to be applied on April 23 in the first person and on Wednesday a first study was completed in a total of 12 people.
The next step is to apply the vaccine to 200 healthy people between the ages of 18 and 55, in order to find the appropriate dose and degree of effectiveness. The objective is to obtain the first results of this phase in June. At a later stage, the vaccine will be tested in people most vulnerable to covid-19. Before testing on humans, the German company had tested the vaccine on mice.
The Paul-Ehrlich Institute, responsible for the vaccine authorization process in Germany, confirms that this is the first human test in the country, where other laboratories are also working on the development of possible vaccines. At the moment, BioNTech has not disclosed the estimated schedule of when the final product may be ready. The test that is now beginning is being carried out with messenger RNA vaccines, which BioNTech has tested in the past on 250 cancer patients.
United States and China
BioNTech and Pfizer work together to develop the vaccine. The goal is to begin the trial phase in the United States as soon as the companies obtain the necessary authorization, according to the statement. BioNTech also collaborates with Fosum Pharma in China, where it also plans to conduct tests.
Covid-19 has killed more than 227,000 people worldwide, and diagnosed cases exceed three million, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. So far there is no ready vaccine in the world capable of stopping the progression of the coronavirus, but there are more than 115 vaccine projects worldwide, several of them in humans, led by China and the USA. USA, which have the most advanced studies at the moment. Two vaccines are also being tested in Spain.
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