China’s coronavirus candidate vaccine caused no side effects among recruits in Moscow as part of large-scale clinical trials, reported Russian English-language newspaper, The Moscow Times.
Russia approved Phase 3 trials of the Chinese vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics, a Chinese high-tech biopharmaceutical company, and a research team with the Academy of Military Sciences in August.
“At the moment, the volunteers are doing well. None of them have shown any side effects,” Petrovax, the Russian pharmaceutical company working with the vaccine’s Chinese developers, said.
Petrovax said it had received more than 3,000 applications to get the Ad5-nCoV vaccine so far.
The study’s participants will be under direct supervision for nearly a month, with four interim face-to-face examinations, and will undergo a control examination after six months, Petrovax said.
The Russian company said it expects preliminary results sometime in November, according to the Interfax news agency.
However, the first coronavirus vaccine available to European Union (EU) citizens should appear in March, Belgian Health Minister Maggie de Block said yesterday.
“In theory, the first vaccine will be from Sanofi and will appear in March here in Belgium and other EU countries,’’ the minister said.
According to her, physicians and the most vulnerable citizens will be the first to receive vaccines.
The comments were quickly walked back by the company.
