Australian researchers have begun researching two new coronavirus vaccines as a ‘critical milestone’ in attempts to contain the pandemic. The vaccines developed by the Oxford and Inovio Pharmaceutical firms in the USA were approved by the World Health Organization for animal research.
At high-containment bio-security labs outside Melbourne, The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organization (CSIRO) is performing the tests. The studies include the vaccine injection of ferrets that have proved to be Covid-19 prone.
Speedy attempts to produce a coronavirus vaccine are being made among science across the world, with the first clinical experiment taking place in the United States last month after skipping a stage of animal testing.
However, CSIRO in Australia claims that the study will be systematic with animal model pre-clinical trials.
The first trial period will be about three months long, with clinical trials of the vaccine candidate of Oxford already expected to commence in the UK in the coming weeks. The tests of CSIRO shall include both the potency and the correct way to deliver the vaccine, including an intramuscular injection and a nasal spray, for more safety.
“Normally it takes about one-to-two years to get to this point and we’ve in fact shortened that to a period of a couple of months,” CSIRO’s director of health Dr. Rob Grenfell, told reporters on Thursday.
