South Africa, which comes with six instances of COVID-19 lakh, has announced that it will participate in two more vaccine trials. Both trials are expected to be conducted through two leading pharmaceutical companies, Johnsons and Novavax, and begin next month. In revealing more details, Dr. Glends Gray, president and chief executive officer of South African Medical Research, revealed that more than 12,000 Africans would participate in the J-J Ad26.COV2-S and Novavax NVX CoV2373 vaccine trial.
Vaccine trials in the country began in June this year after Oxford University introduced the VIDA Ox1Cov-19 vaccine trial in the country. Led by Dr. Shabir Madhi, a prominent professor of vaccination. All new trials are part of 26 vaccine trials known by WHO as the maximum viable candidate vaccines for clinical trials among 139 tested in the laboratory or in animals.
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For the trial, 12,000 volunteers will be vaccinated at 30 sites across the country. Along with African residents, another 60,000 people in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Peru will also participate in the trials. As for African candidates, the efficacy and protection of the candidate vaccine would be tested in healthy adults over the age of 18.
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While HIV patients would be included in the trial, a pregnant woman would not. “Initially, we might not come with other people with comorities (such as diabetes), however, as we get more data, they will be deleted,” Dr. Gray said. He also said it would take more than a year to get results, adding that the maximum vaccine is about 4 years to get approvals.
“We already know a lot about this pathogen and its use in the manufacture of vaccines. The Ad26 skeleton has been used for Ebola, Zika and HIV. So we know what he likes,” Gray added.
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