No COVID-19 vaccine has yet been approved for commercial use. (Representative)
Dubai:
Phase III clinical trials of a COVID-19 vaccine in Abu Dhabi using up to 15,000 volunteers, the government of the capital of the United Arab Emirates announced on Thursday.
The human trial is a partnership between the China National Biotec Group (CNBG) of Sinopharm, the Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence and cloud computing company Group 42 (G42) and the Ministry of Health d ‘Abu Dhabi.
The study, which began Wednesday, is the world‘s first phase III trial of an inactivated vaccine, said Ashish Koshy, CEO of G42 Healthcare. Inactivated vaccines are well known and have been used against diseases such as influenza and measles.
No COVID-19 vaccine has yet been approved for commercial use. According to a WHO summary of the state of vaccine development for COVID-19, there are 23 potential vaccines in human trials, including three in the large-scale start-up phase or in phase III, to test efficiency.
The trial will test two vaccine strains and a placebo. Two doses three weeks apart will be administered and volunteers will follow for one year, said Nawal Alkaabi, head of the UAE COVID-19 Clinical Management Committee.
About 15,000 volunteers over three to six months will be recruited, initially in Abu Dhabi. They will be 18 to 60 years old with no serious underlying medical issues and no previous COVID-19 infection, said Alkaabi.
Sinopharm chose the United Arab Emirates because about 200 different nationalities live there, and it focuses on medical research and the fight against the pandemic, said Koshy.
The United Arab Emirates reported having performed more than 4 million tests for coronavirus infection on a population of approximately 9.6 million. He recorded nearly 56,000 cases of infection and 335 deaths.
Sinopharm obtained approval for the trial in late June. The experimental vaccine has passed phase I and II clinical trials with 100% of volunteers generating antibodies after two doses in 28 days, according to a statement from the government of Abu Dhabi.
China is looking abroad to test potential vaccines due to the lack of new patients at home. Chinese company Sinovac Biotech is conducting phase III trials of a vaccine in Brazil.
Sinopharm and G42 would not have access to patient data in the trial that would be conducted in public hospitals in Abu Dhabi, said G42 Healthcare research director Walid Zaher, adding that the UAE intended to make any successful vaccine.
G42 is an Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence company that has partnered with Chinese genomics company BGI to build a COVID-19 test lab in the emirate and with Israeli entrepreneurs to develop technologies to help fight against disease.
Koshy said the company was privately owned, but declined to say by whom.
Like the other Gulf states, the United Arab Emirates has developed close ties with China, seeking capital and technology to diversify its economy away from hydrocarbon revenues.
However, a key US ally warned the Gulf states to proceed with caution and to consider their relations with Washington.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
