Good news may just be around the corner as a US-based company, Inovio Pharma, begins testing its new Coronavirus Vaccine today. Healthy volunteers from Philadelphia and Missouri will be administered the new vaccine starting today. The company expects that it will have safety results by the end of summers and they could mass produce this vaccine by the end of 2020.
The whole endeavor has received funding from donors including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This is the 2nd vaccine to go under trial in the US as a Massachusetts based company, Moderna, took the lead in testing the first Coronavirus Vaccine. However, experts believe that any vaccine validated in tests will require at least a year before it is available to the public.
As for the Inovio Vaccine, 40 healthy individuals have already signed up for the trials. Each volunteer will receive two doses of the vaccine, four weeks apart. These results will determine the safety of the vaccine after which the 2nd stage of trials testing the efficacy of the vaccine will be determined.
Fingers crossed for a successful trials! The world is watching. Here is the video that explains the race for the vaccine in detail:
