ITV's political editor Robert Peston said that Phase III trials of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate commence in June in Brazil. Peston said, citing sources, that Phase III trials involved thousands of human volunteers,
"I am hearing there will be positive news soon (perhaps tomorrow) on initial trials of the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine that is backed by AstraZeneca," Peston said in a blog post.
The potential vaccine is already in large-scale Phase III human trials to assess whether it can protect against COVID-19, but its developers have yet to report Phase I results which would show whether it is safe and whether or not it induces an immune response.
The developers of the vaccine said this month they are encouraged by the immune response they have seen in trials so far and were expecting to be able to publish Phase 1 data by the end of July.
"Apparently the vaccine is generating the kind of antibody and T-cell (killer cell) response that the researchers would hope to see. If the Oxford vaccine is proven effective, it could go into mass production as early as September," he added.
Many advanced nations like the US, UK and Russia are currently carrying out human clinical trials on the vaccines at various stages of testing worldwide.
On Wednesday (July 15), the Russian defence ministry had announced that it has been succesful in developing a "safe" coronavirus vaccine following clinical trials on a group of volunteers. According to Russian defence ministry, 18 people had participated in the research and were discharged without "serious adverse events, health complaints, complications or side effects".
US-based pharmaceutical major Moderna Inc said on Tuesday that it is mulling to start a late stage clinical trial for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate on or around July 27. Moderna is planning to conduct the trial at 87 study locations across the US.