The clinical trials conducted by the University of Oxford to develop a vaccine against Covid-19 are progressing "very well" and are ready to enter a new phase. The prestigious British University of Oxford announced on Friday that it would recruit more than 10,000 people for a second phase of its trials, in partnership with the AstraZeneca laboratory.
The initial phase of clinical trials on humans, intended to assess the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, had been launched in April on a thousand volunteers aged 18 to 55 years. "The next study will involve up to 10,260 adults and children," the University of Oxford said in a statement.
"We are now starting studies to assess the vaccine-induced immune response in older adults," said Professor Andrew Pollard, who heads the Oxford Vaccine Group. The question is whether it can provide protection to a wider population.
Based on a modified adenovirus affecting chimpanzees.
During this phase 2, the immune response triggered by the vaccine will be evaluated on children from 5 to 12 years old and on people aged at least 56 years. Phase 3 will then measure the effectiveness of the vaccine among a large group of volunteers aged at least 18 years.
Depending on the group to which they will be assigned, volunteers will receive compensation for their participation of up to 555 pounds (around 620 euros).
The University of Oxford, whose project is also funded by the British government, has entered into a partnership with the British pharmaceutical laboratory AstraZeneca for the manufacture and worldwide distribution of the vaccine under development.
Newsletter - The essentials of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more
In April, Oxford launched the first phase of clinical trials with the very ambitious hope of making the vaccine available to the public in the fall. But Friday, when asked about the BBC, Professor Pollard said it would be "very difficult to know exactly when we will have evidence that the vaccine works."
The vaccine that the Oxford researchers are developing is based on a modified adenovirus affecting chimpanzees. It allows "to generate a strong immune response with a single dose and it is not a replicating virus", so it "cannot cause continuous infection in the vaccinated individual".
Eight of the 118 research projects underway around the world to find a vaccine are currently in human clinical trials, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Finding a vaccine is the only possible way to return to "normalcy" in the world, warned in April the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres.