South Africa set to participate in two more vaccine trials

Johannesburg: South Africa is all set to participate in two more COVID-19 vaccine trials by leading pharmaceutical companies starting next month.

Dr Glenda Gray, president and CEO of the South African Medical Research Council, said in an interview with the public interest health website Spotlight on Tuesday that a Johnson & Johnson product called Ad26.COV2-S and a Novavax product called NVX-CoV2373 will be trialled in the country.

The first COVID-19 vaccine trial on the African continent was the Ox1Cov-19 Vaccine VIDA trial, a collaboration with Oxford University, which was started in June in South Africa.

It is led by Professor in Vaccinology at Wits University Shabir Madhi.

Madhi, who is also the lead investigator for the Novavax trial in South Africa, told Spotlight that the Novavax trial to be conducted in South Africa will be a Phase IIb trial, which would measure efficacy, but not to the extent required for registration, for which a Phase III trial is typically needed. (Pti)