Alex Trelinski
THE first clinical trials for a Spanish-made COVID-19 vaccine have been given the green light, just over a week after another trial was postponed due to ‘safety concerns’.
Speaking in Lanzarote today(August 11), Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, said: “Spain’s medicines agency(AEMPS) has just authorised clinical tests of the vaccine on humans.”
The vaccine has been developed by Hipra who have bases in Spain and Brazil.
Last week, clinical trials involving 112 people were postponed by AEMPS due to ‘safety concerns’ surrounding a formula produced by the National Centre for Biotechnology.
That vaccine had been regarded as promising with a 100% efficacy
Media reports of a monkey developing a lung lesion were denied.
Clinical trials of the Hipra vaccine will involve recruiting several dozen hospital workers to test the safety and efficacy of the formula.
The plan is for each participant to get two shots separated by three weeks.
Hipra have been developing two types of COVID vaccine.
The first option is similar to that produced by Pfizer and Moderna which uses RNA messenger technology.
The second formula is based on one conceived by US manufacturer Novavax, which is set to be rolled out across India and the Philippines.
Hipra says that clinical trials could end in time for production to start as soon as October, ahead of getting full authorisation by the end of the year.
They hope to produce up to 400 million doses next year, rising to 1.2 billion in 2023
READ MORE ‘SAFETY CONCERNS’ CAUSE POSTPONEMENT OF CLINICAL TRIALS FOR SPANISH-MADE COVID-19 VACCINE
