Prof elected to vaccine panel

FORMER South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) president and revered immunologist Professor Malegapuru William Makgoba has been appointed by the US government to serve on an expert panel overseeing the first Covid-19 vaccine clinical trials.

Makgoba, a respected public health advocate in South

Africa and globally, joins nine scientists, physicians, ethicists and biostatisticians from the US and two experts from Brazil and the UK on the Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB).

Under the auspices of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the 12-member expert panel will review and monitor the US governmentsupported clinical trials of candidate Covid-19 vaccines.

According to the DSMB Charter, the panel will be responsible for ensuring the safety of participants, the efficacy and the immunogenicity of the candidate vaccine being tested or on trial, and is the final structure to pronounce on vaccine approval.

“Professor Makgoba’s appointment comes at the time when finding a safe and efficacious vaccine is the ultimate goal to contain this global emergency, a vaccine is the only way to significantly impact and to change the course of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said SAMRC president Professor Glenda Gray.

In South Africa, the first Covid19 vaccine trial is currently under way – the South African Ox1Cov-19 vaccine Vida-trial aims to find a vaccine that will prevent infection by Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.