Up To 4,200 Volunteers In Ukraine May Join Phase 3 Of COVID-19 Vaccine Trials - Official

Up to 4,200 Volunteers in Ukraine May Join Phase 3 of COVID-19 Vaccine Trials - Official

Up to 4,200 Ukrainian volunteers may take part in a phase three study of a European-developed COVID-19 vaccine candidate, according to a high-ranking health official

KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th October, 2020) Up to 4,200 Ukrainian volunteers may take part in a phase three study of a European-developed COVID-19 vaccine candidate, according to a high-ranking health official.

According to Tatiana Dumenko, who heads the State Expert Center at Ukraine's Health Ministry, a request [for the trials] has already been sent [to the center] by an unnamed European pharmaceutical firm. The center is currently studying the application, Dumanko said during a television appearance on Friday.

"We received the first application last week to conduct a phase three study [of a a vaccine] by European manufacturer, we are examining these materials. If they are sufficient and the safety of conducting this study in Ukraine is confirmed, then 4,200 Ukrainian volunteers will be able to take part in this project. When will this happen? We wish for it to be as soon as possible," Dumenko said on Ukraine's 1+1 channel.

She said that other research centers in the Kiev, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions are being considered to conduct the study.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had announced earlier in the year that Kiev will refrain from importing Russia-developed COVID-19 vaccines.

As of Friday, Ukraine had registered over 287,000 cases of infection with nearly 6,000 over the past 24 hours. Newly recorded 106 deaths took overall death toll to 5,408, according to health authorities.