The first of 120 volunteers have been given a vaccine candidate developed by UQ which it is hoped will be approved for general use by next year.
The first two Queenslanders to take part in human trials of a new COVID-19 vaccine candidate say they want to do their part to get the community to the other side of the pandemic.
Ms Sullivan and Dr Fercher were among those chosen for the randomised, double-blind trial, under which they will receive two doses four weeks apart and then be monitored for the next year.Although the vaccine has shown no dangerous effects in pre-clinical trials, being the subject of a medical experiment always comes with some risk.Professor Trent Munro with Associate Professor Keith Chappell, of the UQ School of Chemistry , and Professor Paul Young, along with the first two vaccine recipients.
"The Australian, and especially the Brisbane, community was nothing but helpful and kind, and seeing so many people out of work and affected by this, I wanted to do something to help us get out of this as fast as possible," he said. Project director Professor Trent Munro said while the trial was being fast-tracked, corners were not being cut around safety."The same standards will apply to this trial as apply to any other trial. There’s a large number of vaccines in development, so we’ll be looking closely across those and trying to get data that’s aligned," Professor Munro said.
UQ received $10 million from the Queensland government in March, which followed initial funding in January of $US4.5 million from the international Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
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