New Delhi: Oxford University’s group of scientists who are working on the COVID-19 vaccine say they are on track and by this pace, they can make the vaccine available by September. Currently, the team is leading the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.ALSO READ|Russian Hackers With Links To Govt Trying To Steal Covid 19 Vaccine Research; Know More About The Group

Around the globe there are over 200 vaccine candidates for Coronavirus, the team at Oxford University has completed the Phase I of the human trials and is moving on to Phase III. The pharma company AstraZeneca is collaborating with the research for manufacturing the vaccine on a large scale. AstraZeneca is also responsible for making this vaccine globally available if the vaccine passes the phases of trials.

According to a PTI report, David Carpenter Chairman of the Berkshire Research Ethics Committee said that vaccine trials are “absolutely on track”. He said, "Nobody can put final dates... things might go wrong but the reality is that by working with a big pharma company, that vaccine could be fairly widely available around September and that is the sort of target they are working on."

The reports also said that the researchers believe they may have a breakthrough in their search for a COVID-19 vaccine after the team discovered that this vaccine can provide "double protection" against the deadly coronavirus following early-stage human trials. Blood samples of the volunteers who were given a dose of the vaccine showed that it stimulated the body to produce both antibodies and “killer T-cells”.

In an Oxford University press release, it is said that the vaccine named “ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 is made from a virus (ChAdOx1), which is a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) that causes infections in chimpanzees, that has been genetically changed so that it is impossible for it to replicate in humans.”