While the government and scientists all over the world are trying to develop an effective vaccine against the deadly coronavirus, which has claimed lakhs of lives, Chinese scientists have claimed that they have successfully tested the country’s first vaccine against COVID-19 in monkeys, which is a significant development in the race to find a cure for the COVID-19 virus.
According to the reports, PiCoVacc, an inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidate made by Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech, has shown promising results as the experimental vaccine could help protect the rhesus macaques, a type of monkey originating in India, from the virus.
The trial
For doing the trial, the researchers injected the vaccine in the monkeys who were then exposed to SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19 three weeks later. The report published in the science magazine stated that the vaccine triggered the immune response to produce the antibodies against the novel coronavirus. It was observed that these antibodies can also attack the normal virus.
The researchers also found that monkeys which were given a dose of PiCoVacc did not have the virus in their lungs after a week. While the monkeys that were not given the vaccine developed severe pneumonia.
Several reports tell that China has been testing vaccines in humans since mid-April. There is another vaccine made by Chinese military institution, which is being currently tested on humans.
Meanwhile, Israel and Italy have claimed success in developing COVID-19 vaccines.
However, scientists may find it difficult to get volunteers for testing in the near future as the number of COVID-19 patients left in China is only in hundreds. A similar situation led to the development of SARS vaccine in the year 2003.