There is currently no approved treatment or vaccine for COVID-19 (File)
Johnson & Johnson announced Wednesday that it will begin human trials of its potential COVID-19 vaccine in the second half of July, two months earlier than expected, as drug manufacturers rush to develop a vaccine against fatal respiratory disease.
The company has already signed deals with the U.S. government to create enough production capacity to produce more than a billion doses of its vaccine until 2021.
There is currently no approved treatment or vaccine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus that has killed more than 4,000,000 people worldwide.
The J&J study will test the vaccine against a placebo and assess the safety and immune response of the vaccine in 1,045 healthy people aged 18 to 55, as well as those 65 and older. The trial will take place in the United States and Belgium.
US biotech Moderna Inc. is at the forefront of the development of the COVID-19 vaccine and has started testing its candidate in a mid-term trial that will recruit 600 patients. The company plans to start advanced testing in July.
AstraZeneca, Sanofi, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline are all at different stages of development of their vaccine candidates.
There are currently around ten coronavirus vaccines tested in humans, and experts predicted that a safe and effective vaccine could take 12 to 18 months from the start of development.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
