Singapore: The first batch of volunteers aged between 21 and 55 in Singapore have received a dose of a potential coronavirus vaccine being developed in the country.
Called Lunar-Cov19, the vaccine is developed by Duke-NUS Medical School and American pharmaceutical company Arcturus Therapeutics.
Arcturus in a statement said that this first phase of the trial involved volunteers aged between 21 and 55, who were injected with a single shot of the vaccine.
Data from this phase of the early-stage trial would be used to select the dosage regimens of the next phase, which will involve those aged 56 to 80, as well as younger adults.
Arcturus president and chief executive Joseph Payne said that based on pre-clinical trials, its vaccine may only need to be administered once, and at a very low dose.
“These favourable attributes could greatly facilitate mass vaccination campaigns necessary to control this global pandemic,” he said. As of last week, more than 250 people here had volunteered for the trials of the vaccine but only around 100 were selected.
The trial, which is being administered by the SingHealth Investigational Medicine Unit, is expected to last until October this year.
The vaccine was originally slated to begin trials in September, but had been approved ahead of time due to pre-clinical trials “exceeding expectations”. (PTI)
