The ChulaCov19 vaccine proved to be as effective as the Pfizer vaccine when it comes to antibody stimulation to fight COVID-19, according to its developers.
King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, the Thai Red Cross Society and the Chula Vaccine Research Center announced the achievement of their ChulaCov19, Thailand’s first mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, after the first phase of its clinical trials with Thai volunteers on June 24. They developed the vaccine together with the University of Pennsylvania.
Prof Dr Kiat Ruxrungtham, vaccine development head of the Chula Vaccine Research Center, said 36 volunteers aged 18-55 years who participated in the trials were safe and did not develop any severe side effect and the vaccine stimulated antibodies as highly as other mRNA vaccines could including the vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech. Besides, the vaccine could cope with the original variant of COVID-19 as well as 4 new variants namely Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta, he said.
The second phase of the human trials was set on Aug 25.
Vaccines of the mRNA type could be produced rapidly without waiting for cell cultures or requiring a large plant and could be modified quickly to deal with viral mutants. The production technology would be transferred to BioNet-Asia Co for manufacturing, Prof Dr Kiat said. (TNA)
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