COVID-19 vaccines are moving toward clinical trials

Drug developers are moving their experimental vaccines for COVID-19 into clinical trials at a frenetic pace. Trials for five such vaccines have begun in China. Two are being tested in the US, with a third slated to start this month. And trials of two more are due to begin in the UK and Australia in the coming weeks.

“Everything from basic science to clinical science is progressing at a pace faster than ever before—and very appropriately given the grave nature of the current global crisis,” says Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard University School of Medicine.

The World Health Organization says at least 70 COVID-19 vaccines are in development, while scientists at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) have counted 115.

On April 9, the World Health Organization announced that it is planning an international study, the SOLIDARITY vaccine trial, which will assess and compare multiple COVID-19 vaccines with each other and a single placebo arm.