Phase 2 clinical trial of a new coronavirus vaccine in China achieves good results
Xinhua News Agency, London, July 20 (Reporter Zhang Jiawei and Yu Jiaxin) The Chinese research team published a paper in the British medical journal "The Lancet" on the 20th, saying that they conducted a phase 2 clinical trial of a new coronavirus vaccine. This vaccine is safe and can induce an immune response in the body.
Researchers such as Academician Chen Wei from the Institute of Bioengineering of the Academy of Military Medicine of the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences and Professor Zhu Fengcai from the Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention conducted this clinical trial. This team has previously completed a phase 1 clinical trial of the vaccine, and related results have also been published.
Related trials evaluated an adenovirus vector recombinant new coronavirus vaccine. According to the paper, more than 500 volunteers participated in the Phase 2 clinical trial in China, including people over 55 years of age. Compared with the Phase 1 clinical trial, the range of participants was larger. The purpose of the test is to evaluate whether this vaccine can induce an immune response in the human body and whether it is sufficiently safe. The results show that the vaccine has produced good results in both aspects.
In a press release issued by The Lancet, Zhu Fengcai said that the Phase 2 clinical trial compared with the Phase 1 clinical trial provides further evidence for the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine in a larger population. This is an assessment. An "important step" for candidate vaccines, the team is currently conducting phase 3 clinical trials.
The researchers also pointed out that the volunteers who participated in the trial were not exposed to the new coronavirus after being vaccinated. Therefore, it is not possible to judge whether the vaccine can effectively protect people from the new coronavirus based on the results of this test. Phase 3 clinical trials are needed to further verification.
According to "The Lancet", there are currently about 250 candidate new coronavirus vaccines in the world, and at least 17 of them are in clinical trials.