Spain has for the 1st time received the health regulatory agency's approval to conduct clinical trials of a candidate vaccine against the coronavirus, Health Minister Salvador Ilia said on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th August, 2020) Spain has for the 1st time received the health regulatory agency's approval to conduct clinical trials of a candidate vaccine against the coronavirus, Health Minister Salvador Ilia said on Friday.
The minister specified that the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Products (AEMPS) has approved holding trials.
"This morning, the AEMPS gave permission to conduct the first clinical trials of a vaccine against COVID-19 in our country. This is a vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson ... permission was granted for the second phase [of clinical trials]," Ilia said during a press conference, as broadcast by the Spanish RTVE channel.
The minister mentioned that 190 volunteers in the country will participate in the trials, which will be held also in Germany and Belgium. Johnson & Johnson has conducted the first phase of trials in the United States and Belgium.
Ilia also said that Spain has recently signed a deal to purchase vaccines produced by the AstraZeneca pharmaceutical company, and the country expects to receive the first batch by the end of the year.
Spain has been seeing a surge in the coronavirus infection rate starting in mid-July, and the country has registered over 3,600 new cases over the past day. Overall, Spain has confirmed some 420,000 COVID-19 cases and nearly 29,000 related deaths. The authorities have said that the majority of new cases have been registered among young people without symptoms.
