Vaccine firm seeks 6,000 volunteers for trial
Scientists are appealing for 6,000 volunteers to take part in the final stage of a coronavirus vaccine test.
The vaccine by pharmaceutical company Janssen – owned by Johnson and Johnson – has already undergone phase one and two trials, and interim analysis suggests the Covid-19 vaccine candidate induces a robust immune response and is generally well-tolerated.
For the two-dose study, researchers are aiming to recruit around 6,000 UK participants – from a total of 30,000 people globally – at 17 sites across the country.
Recruitment into the study will complete in March and the trial will last for 12 months.
So far around 25,000 people in the UK have participated in vaccine trials, and more than 310,000 have indicated their willingness to take part in clinical studies by signing up to the NHS vaccine research registry.
Kate Bingham, chairwoman of the UK's Vaccine Task force, said :" Because we've got this national citizen registry of volunteers willing togo into clinical trials, it has accelerated our ability to enrol trials.
"And that means that the UK is a very favourable place to come in and run studies.”
The UK has secured 30 million doses of the Janssen vaccine if the trial is successful.
Prof Faust, who is principal investigator of the Janssen trial in the UK, said there are 40,000 people on the NHS vaccine registry who are in the areas around the vaccine centres the firm is using.
The researchers also stress that participating in a vaccine trial would not exclude anyone from routine immunisation later.