Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer begins testing coronavirus vaccine in people
Source: Washington Post
By
Carolyn Y. Johnson
May 5, 2020 at 3:45 a.m. PDT
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer began testing multiple versions of an experimental coronavirus vaccine in healthy young people in the United States this week, a first step toward establishing the safety, dosage and most promising candidate to take into larger trials that will test effectiveness.
In an unusual trial design that signals the pressing need to find a vaccine against covid-19, Pfizer is initially testing four versions of the vaccine, side by side. Typically, companies spend years on animal experiments and select a single promising candidate to put into human testing, but the drugmaker decided to create a flexible trial that could rapidly sift out the best option.
“The pandemic came upon us, fast and furious, and we didn’t have a lot of time to do years of research,” said Kathrin Jansen, head of vaccine research and development at Pfizer. “Because of the urgency and the crisis, we said, ‘What can we do to shorten the development time for a vaccine?’ ”
Jansen said the goal is to have a vaccine ready for use in high-risk groups by the fall — an ambitious goal that echoes the timeline from a group at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. There are at least eight other vaccine candidates being tested in people worldwide, according to a tracker by the Milken Institute.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/05/05/pharmaceutical-giant-pfizer-begins-testing-coronavirus-vaccine-people/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJjb29raWVuYW1lIjoid3BfY3J0aWQiLCJpc3MiOiJDYXJ0YSIsImNvb2tpZXZhbHVlIjoiNWIxZDVhZDdhZGU0ZTI3OTM5MDUxNjU5IiwidGFnIjoiNWViMWM0NzdmZTFmZjY1NGMyZDM5NDQ1IiwidXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cud2FzaGluZ3RvbnBvc3QuY29tL2hlYWx0aC8yMDIwLzA1LzA1L3BoYXJtYWNldXRpY2FsLWdpYW50LXBmaXplci1iZWdpbnMtdGVzdGluZy1jb3JvbmF2aXJ1cy12YWNjaW5lLXBlb3BsZS8_dXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPXdwX3RvX3lvdXJfaGVhbHRoJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJndwaXNyYz1ubF90eWgmd3Btaz0xIn0.-7kS6HqOcR-cvr71tEjldTGXW7aAZVwswg8rFBMRMc0&utm_campaign=wp_to_your_health&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_tyh&wpmk=1
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