Pfizer kicks off human trials of potential coronavirus vaccine

Several scientists and health experts across the globe are in to the race to find a vaccine for the deadly coronavirus which is also known as COVID-19. American pharmaceutical company Pfizer along with German partner BioNTech is now at a stage where it has already started running tests on health individuals. Pfizer is one of the many companies which is racing towards finding the fastest and the safest vaccine. The trials on health individuals started off in the United States on May 4, 2020. If the ongoing tests prove to be successful, then the vaccine will move towards the next phase in terms of the clinical trials and will be commercially available as soon as September, 2020.

The vaccine is being developed by the two companies jointly and is using the genetic material that is known as the RNA, which is responsible to carry the instructions for the cells to make proteins. Here the newly designed RNA is injected in the body and it would instruct the cells to pierce the protein of the coronavirus without making the person sick. The coronavirus typically makes us of such a protein to make the capture the lungs of the sick person. The vaccine in the making will train the immune system of the body to produce anti-bodies that would fight against the virus.

The companies have their hands on a technology that has the advantage of being faster to produce and is also more stable than the traditional vaccines that makes use of weakened virus strains. A similar approach is also being used by other companies like CanSino, Inovio, Moderna and others. So far no vaccine that is made with such a technology has reached the commercial market.

The experimental shot has been injected in about 12 healthy adults and in the next phase, the trial will be expanded to about 200 participants which might also include patients.

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