The pace is accelerating in the medical laboratories and the most advanced pharmaceutical companies in the world with the aim of discovering the appropriate vaccine to treat Covid-19, but many wonder why the producing countries conduct their clinical tests in other countries.
In an article published in the French newspaper "Liberation", the writer Emma Donada talked about the three clinical stages that vaccines go through before the marketing stage, and shed light on the reasons that make countries such as the United States and China conduct their experiments in other countries.
The author explained that the vaccine is undergoing trial in the first clinical phase on a small number of people, to see what damage it can cause and how effective it is in stimulating the production of antibodies.
During the second clinical phase, the number of participants is greater, and this step allows researchers to determine the appropriate dosage amount, monitor side effects and immune response, as well as determine the vaccination schedule.
third level
According to the World Health Organization, "the third stage of clinical trials of the vaccine usually requires tens of thousands of volunteers, because it represents the most important stage, as it determines whether the vaccine is safe and cures the disease or not."
The organization is currently overseeing 30 vaccine projects against Covid-19, and these projects have reached various stages of clinical trials.
For example, there is a Chinese vaccine developed by CanSino Biological and the Institute of Biotechnology in Beijing that will be tested in countries such as Pakistan during the third clinical phase, and also there are clinical trials already underway in China, Russia, Argentina and Chile.
In the same period, the US company Novavax was about to start the second phase of testing its vaccine in South Africa.
The author says that conducting clinical trials for these two vaccines away from the producing countries is not an exception, as AstraZeneca has previously conducted its experiments on the vaccine, which it is developing in cooperation with the University of Oxford - which has reached the third stage - in Brazil, South Africa and the states United Kingdom, aside from his experience in the United Kingdom.
Universal character
In an interview with the Fake News Verification Team in Liberation newspaper, Marie-Paul Kenny, director of research at the French Institute for Health and Medical Research, explained that “research and development in the field of vaccines have acquired a global character for many years, and the first trials are often conducted in the country conducting the research. But not always, efficacy testing trials (i.e. phase III trials) should be conducted in countries where the virus is most common, such as the United States of America, South Africa, and Brazil.
The author concluded that the primary reason for conducting phase-three trials outside the countries developing the vaccine is the need to test the effectiveness of the drug in countries where the virus is spreading strongly.