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Researcher works on the diagnosis of suspected coronavirus cases in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, on March 26, 2020 – AFP
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The global race to find a vaccine against the new coronavirus, the only possible way, according to the UN, to return to normalcy, is intensifying with the first clinical trials in Germany and the United Kingdom.
In Germany, federal authorities in charge of vaccine certification approved human clinical tests on Wednesday (22) by the German laboratory BioNTech, based in Mainz, in collaboration with the American giant Pfizer.
These trials, the fifth in humans worldwide, according to the Paul Ehrlich Institute (IPE), are “an important stage” in making the vaccine “available as soon as possible.”
This body claims to have given its approval after a “full assessment of the potential risk / benefit report” of the product being tested.
– First dose –
These tests will be carried out initially with 200 healthy volunteers between 18 and 55 years of age. The second phase should be carried out with volunteers with a risk profile, according to the IPE.
According to the institute, the objective is “to determine the general tolerance of the tested vaccine and its ability to provide an immune response against the pathogen,” an RNA-like virus, which has the particularity to mutate.
The tests are also slated for Thursday in the UK, with the first dose administered to humans as part of a project led by the University of Oxford and sponsored by the government.
In the first phase, these tests will involve 510 volunteers between 18 and 55 years of age. Half of them will receive the new vaccine and the rest, a control vaccine.
Parallel to the research, a first million doses will be produced so that, if successful, the vaccine will be available quickly.
The chances of success are estimated at 80% by its creators.
In Germany, the IPE does not specify when exactly the tests will begin, but BioNTech president Ugur Sahin assured that they will start “in late April”.
The first data may be available “in late June or early July,” he added.
This laboratory, which specializes in cancer treatments, and Pfizer now hope to gain approval from American health officials to launch trials in the United States.
Other laboratories are also expected to launch human trials in Germany in the coming months, says the IPE.
There is currently no treatment or vaccine against COVID-19, which has caused more than 177,000 deaths worldwide and infected approximately 2.5 million people.
Finding a vaccine is the only possible way to return to “normal” in the world, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said last week, asking to speed up ongoing projects.
A UN resolution adopted Monday calls for “fair, effective and fast” access to a possible vaccine.
– Fierce fight –
Five projects are currently undergoing human testing, according to German authorities.
The first clinical trials were announced in mid-March by Chinese and American developers.
On March 16, Beijing approved the first test of a vaccine developed by the Academy of Military Medical Sciences and the biotech company CanSino Bio.
On the same day, the American drug company Moderna, claimed to have begun human testing in collaboration with federal health institutes.
The search for a vaccine against the virus provokes a fierce fight in some countries.
The German government had to act to stop the first “in extremis” contacts of the White House to buy the German pharmaceutical laboratory CureVac.
In the same vein, the European Commission has just asked the 27 countries of the European Union to “protect themselves” from the threat of buying companies in strategic sectors.
