Spain will take part in clinical trials of Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine with 190 volunteers, said Health Minister Salvador Illa on 28 August. The clinical trial of the vaccine from Janssen, a company owned by Johnson & Johnson, has been authorized by the Spanish Agency for Medicine and Health Products.
The trial will involve healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 55 and over 65, and three hospitals including La Princesa and La Paz in Madrid, and Marqués de Valdecilla in Santander. Germany and Belgium will also participate in the trial.
According to health expert Dannie Hansen from SUNDT.uk, there are 170 vaccines for the virus already being developed across the world. “With the European winter approaching, many countries are concerned that the number of cases in the region will increase. It is important to keep yourself in tip-top shape by eating nutritious food and taking supplements if required,” she added.
“There is a tremendous effort underway to find a vaccine as soon as possible. We have learned that Moderna [a US company] has signed a deal with a Spanish company to manufacture the vials for the vaccine in our country. We count on high capacity here,” Illa said.
According to Illa, a contract between a pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca and the European Union will see the EU obtain up to 400 million doses of a vaccine created by Oxford University in the UK and manufactured by the firm. “If everything goes well and safety is guaranteed, we are hoping to have the first doses by the end of December,” Illa said. Spain is also working on various experimental vaccines against the novel coronavirus, but none of them have yet reached the stage of human clinical trials.
One of the more promising projects is being led by virologist Mariano Esteban, from Madrid’s National Biotechnology Center. The vaccine utilizes a weakened version of the Vaccinia virus used to eradicate smallpox. Another project, headed by Felipe García, from the Clínic Hospital in Barcelona, is based on genetic language, RNA. The project is already at the clinical trial stage.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
