The Assistant Undersecretary for Public Health at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Mariam Al Hajri, today announced the initiation of a phase III clinical trial for a COVID-19 inactivated vaccine which will be tested on an estimated 6000 citizens and resident volunteers across the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Dr. Al Hajri highlighted that the potential vaccine, enlisted by the World Health Organization, will be tested on volunteers who meet the required medical criteria.
Dr. Al Hajri outlined that the clinical trials are divided into three phases, the first phase ensures the efficiency of the vaccine. In phase two, the clinical study is expanded to ensure an immune response is triggered, and the vaccine is administered to individuals with certain characteristics (such as age and physical health) similar to those for whom the new vaccine will be developed.
The proposed inactivated vaccine has succeeded in passing the first and second phases without causing any harmful side-effects, as 100% of the volunteers in China generated antibodies two days after receiving the dosage.
The phase III clinical trial, carried out by the Kingdom of Bahrain, follows the UAE’s similar trial, which began at the end of July 2020 and has already seen nearly 10,000 vaccinated volunteers from 100 countries participating.
