Australia’s first human trials of a potential COVID-19 vaccine have begun in Melbourne, with about 130 people involved in the program.
Key points:
- The potential vaccine, NVX-CoV2373, is being developed by US biotech company Novavax
- If it is successful, researchers hope 100 million doses of the vaccine can be made by the end of the year and 1.5 billion next year
- Preliminary results for phase one are expected in July, and phase two results by the end of the year
Clinical research organisation Nucleus Network will be in charge of the early stages of testing the vaccine NVX-CoV2373, before the trial expands to Brisbane within a week.
The participants are healthy people between 18 and 59 years old.
Infectious diseases physician and microbiologist Paul Griffin said the trial was “the first critical step” to creating a potential s