Brazil to help test Oxford’s Covid-19 vaccine

Brazil will soon start testing an experimental vaccine against the novel coronavirus being developed by researchers at the University of Oxford, supported by AstraZeneca

The vaccine will be tested in Brazil on 2,000 volunteers, who will be recruited starting this week.

Soraya Smaili, Brazilian university’s president, said, “Volunteers must be health professionals between 18 and 55 years old and be at high risk of infection, for example, cleaning and support staff in units treating Covid-19 patients”

Andrew Pollard, chief investigator of the Oxford Vaccine Trial at Oxford, said: “We are delighted to be working with the talented team of investigators in Brazil on the Covid-19 vaccine trial, as researchers and scientists around the world collaborate on clinical development work with unprecedented urgency to combat the global threat to human health that is coronavirus.”

The Oxford University vaccine, supported by AstraZeneca, is among the first Covid-19 vaccines to move into Phase II, or mid-stage, trials, along with one from the U.S. biotech company Moderna Inc