Vietnam’s second homegrown Covivac candidate vaccine (Photo: VNA)A total of 375 volunteers will be classified in three groups for the 3mcg and 6 mcg dosages and placebo injections.
Earlier, assessing the first stage of Covivac human trialson over 120 volunteers since March 15, the National Ethics Committee inBiomedical Research under the Ministry of Health concluded that the vaccine wassafe, well tolerated, immunogenic, and eligible for the second stage.
Covivac has been developed and produced by the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals (IVAC). It usesprimary chicken embryo cell culture - a technique the institute used previouslyto successfully produce seasonal flu vaccines.
Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Dinh Thiem, director of the NIHE’s clinicaltrial center, said that the selected volunteers must be over 18 years old,possibly up to 70-80 years old, including those with chronic diseases such asdiabetes, hypertension but under stable treatment.
If the second stage goes well, by the end of September, the researchteam will collect blood samples from the volunteers on the 42nd day after their first jabs to evaluate the vaccine’s immunogenicity.
On the 57th day, the volunteers will continue to undergophysical examination and take blood tests for evaluation and analysis beforethe team proposes the third stage of trials on 1,000 volunteers./.
VNA
