The United States may have four Covid-19 candidate vaccines in large-scale clinical trials by the middle of September, according to a report by the USA today.
Health and Human Services Deputy Chief of Staff Paul Mango, who is also the agency’s liaison with Operation Warp Speed, said that the US government was very pleased with the progress.
He added that the agency felt it was “absolutely on track”, if not a little ahead, in terms of their overall objective – which was tens of millions of (doses of) safe and effective vaccines approved for calendar year-end. Mango said that each Phase 3 clinical trial would enroll 30,000 volunteers and that the two underway currently were about halfway there.
Britain is preparing to revise its laws to allow the emergency use of any effective coronavirus vaccine before it is fully licensed — but only if the shots meet required safety and quality standards.
In a statement Friday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government said it was adopting reinforced safeguards to allow the country’s medicines regulatory agency to grant temporary authorization of a COVID-19 vaccine, provided it meets safety and quality standards.
The proposed regulations would allow coronavirus vaccines to receive an emergency approval allowing people to be immunized while the full licensing process is being finished. Typically, vaccines are only used after the licensing review has been completed, a process which can take several months.
