By More vaccine hope
Final stage trials of another vaccine to protect against Covid-19 have launched in the UK.
The jab, designed by Belgian pharmaceutical company Janssen, which is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, uses a genetically modified common cold virus to train the immune system.
Britain will be the first country to run the final stage trials.
Scientists will begin recruiting some 6,000 people across the UK today for the 12-month trial.
It could take six to nine months before the results are available.
Dr Saul Faust, who is helping lead the study, said the research will start first in Britain but aims to recruit a total of 30,000 people in six countries around the world.
The shot uses a harmless cold virus to deliver the spike protein of the coronavirus into the body, which scientists hope will prompt an immune response.
This is the third potential jab about to enter clinical trials in the UK, alongside US biotech company Novavax and the University of Oxford’s vaccine with AstraZeneca, whose trials are ongoing.
The news comes a week after preliminary results showed another vaccine offered 90% protection.
The success of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech has caused global excitement.
However, it has not yet been approved for use and we still do not know how well it works in the elderly or how long immunity lasts.
