DUBAI (Reuters) – Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical company Sinopharm has begun phase III clinical trials of a COVID-19 vaccine in Bahrain, after launching trials in the United Arab Emirates last month, Bahrain’s Ministry of Fitness said Monday.
The human test, which was presented in mid-July in the Capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, is a partnership between Sinopharm’s China National Biotec Group (CNBG) and the Abu Dhabi Group 42 (G42)-based synthetic intelligence and cloud computing organization. .
G42 Healthcare CEO Ashish Koshy said the extension of the trial to the small island state of Bahrain will increase the number of participants in the same way as ongoing trials in countries with much larger populations.
The study, which uses an inactivated vaccine, will be carried out with about 6,000 Bahraini citizens and volunteer citizens for 12 months, the ministry of fitness said.
The use of any COVID-19 vaccine has not yet been approved.
The trial in the United Arab Emirates, which was expanded from Abu Dhabi to arrive with some other medium in the emirate of Sharjah, reached 5,000 vaccines on Thursday, according to a number of the organizers of the trial.
Bahrain, with a population of 1.5 million, has recorded more than 44,000 of the new coronavirus and 162 deaths.
Written through Lisa Barrington; Editing through Kirsten Donovan
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