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02 April, 2020

Serum Institute to go for human trials for COVID-19 vaccine by year-end, says Adar Poonawala

As governments race to get a handle on the spread of the coronavirus and cure the affected people, the medical community has been busy working on finding a vaccine to prevent this virus from becoming a pandemic.

Serum Institute to go for human trials for COVID-19 vaccine by year-end

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has gone on record saying it does not expect a vaccine to be ready for at least 18 months.

More than 35 companies and academic institutions have entered the race to create such a vaccine. As of March 20, the WHO website said that there are more than 40 vaccine candidates that are in various stages of development.

Global pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson said it had selected a lead candidate vaccine for the novel coronavirus. It began work on a vaccine in January using the same technology it used to develop a vaccine for Ebola. It expects to move to human trials by September and said the vaccine could be ready for emergency use by early next year.

Source - CNBC TV18