Chinese vaccine maker Sinovac Biotech is planning to start clinical trials of the experimental COVID-19 vaccine on teenagers and adolescents later this month. The test shot is already in the final stage of study with adults.
According to a registration record a total of 552 healthy participants between three and seventeen years of age will take two doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac or a placebo in Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials. The trial will probably begin on 28th September in the northern Chinese province of Hebei.
As part of the programme, CoronaVac is in the final stage of trials in Turkey, Brazil and Indonesia. Here the vaccine is already been given to 90% of the company’s employees and their families.
Sinovac said earlier this month that CoronaVac appeared to be safe and was able to induce antibodies for older people. The vaccine generated antibody levels were a bit low in younger adults.
A vaccine that works for the entire population can prove to be crucial in controlling the pandemic which has already taken 930,000 lives so fararound the world.
