The Israeli Biological Research Institute (a governmental institute) announced, on Sunday evening, that it will start on the first of next month the first clinical trials in humans regarding the development of a vaccine for the Corona virus.
The institute indicated that the process will take place after it has received the approvals of the Ministry of Health and the Helsinki Committee for Medical Experiments on Humans.
The institute said: This is the beginning of an important and decisive stage in the development of facing the Corona virus, indicating that the experiments will last for several months, and include three stages.
And he indicated that the first phase will be part of the safety tests on 80 healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 to 55 years in Sheba and Hadassah hospitals, and depending on the results of their response to the vaccine, the phase will be gradually expanded.
The volunteer will be followed up for about 3 weeks, to see if there are any side effects, and to distinguish whether antivirus bodies have appeared.
In the second phase, safety tests will be intense to include 690 health volunteers, and this phase may start in December, while the third will be a large-scale experiment to include 30,000 volunteers, and it is scheduled to start in April or May next, all of which is linked to the success of the two phases. The first two, and if the last stage is successfully completed, it will be possible to agree to the use of the vaccine and to vaccinate the entire population.
The Israeli Defense Minister and alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz welcomed this start, describing researchers at the institute as "warriors of hope."
He pointed out that two months ago, he received the first bottle of the vaccine, and today there are 25 thousand vaccine doses.
He considered that the mission of researchers is international and historical, and an important step in changing the health reality, indicating that he will continue to support them with the necessary means to reach a safe and effective vaccine.
