A university professor heading a Covid-19 trial predicted that Africa could have its vaccine in the first quarter of 2021 if the ongoing trials are successful.
As many as 141 vaccines are on trial world over to deal with coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than half a million people within 6 months. Currently, a human trial is underway in South Africa and if it succeeds, a university professor heading the trials said that Africa could have a coronavirus vaccine in the first quarter of 2021.
The ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 is the experimental Covid-19 vaccine that if gets succeeded, will be available to cure the disease in Africa. This vaccine is also being tested in Brazil by Oxford University scientists, working with British drugmaker AstraZeneca on development and production.
The clinical trials are in crucial phase for the Covid-19 vaccine in Africa
Shabir Madhi, a Professor of Vaccinology at the University of Witwatersrand is leading the South African trial, said, “A Covid-19 vaccine could be made commercial as early as the beginning of next year in Africa, But it is completely dependent on the results of clinical trials. The timing of an efficacy read-out depends on when we have approximately 42 Covid-19 cases at least one month after vaccination.”
However, coronavirus cases in Africa reached more than 500k on Wednesday with approximately 12,000 deaths. Madhi said that the government should put an upfront purchase order for the potential vaccine.
“[The] big challenge is we are looking at requiring billions of doses of vaccine. It is really going to be how companies can scale up and make it affordable and accessible,” said Pontiano Kaleebu, director at Uganda Virus Research Institute.
In the end, Madhi said that African manufacturers did not manufacture even a single vaccine in the last 25 years.
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