Turkey : Talking with Teams from China, Germany and Russia for Phase III Trial of New Coronavirus Vaccine

Research & Development (R&D) teams in many countries around the world are stepping up the development of a new coronavirus vaccine. Currently, the Chinese and German R&D teams are advancing the Phase III international clinical trials of the vaccine, and Russia announced on August 11 that it has registered the world's first new coronavirus vaccine.

According to Reuters, on August 19, local time, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that Turkey is negotiating with teams from Russia, Germany and China to conduct a phase III trial of the new crown vaccine in the country.

In the press release, Koca stated that Germany and China have applied for Phase III clinical trials in Turkey and submitted pre-clinical trial results. The Turkish government hopes to see the results of pre-clinical trials in Russia before the trial.

He also revealed that Turkey's own R&D team is developing 13 new coronavirus vaccines, of which 3 have completed the animal test stage.

Reuters : Turkey is discussing vaccine trials with China, Russia and Germany

According to the WHO report on the progress of global vaccine research and development on August 10, nearly 200 new coronavirus vaccines are under development worldwide before August 11.

Among them, there are 6 types that have entered clinical Phase III trials (large-scale volunteer trials) : Germany's BioNTech Company, Fosun Pharma and Pfizer, China's China Kexing Company, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Beijing Institute of Virology and Sinopharm Group jointly developed.

According to CCTV News, the vaccine developed by the team of Chen Wei, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a researcher of the Academy of Military Sciences, entered the Phase III international clinical trial on August 13.

It is worth noting that the world's first new coronavirus vaccine, 'Sputnik-V', which Russia announced on August 11 to register, is not on this list.

The 6 vaccines that entered Phase III trials before August 11, pictured from the WHO website
Turkey's new coronavirus cases have been on the rise in recent weeks. Reuters quoted official data showing that on August 19, local time, Turkey added 1,303 confirmed cases, the highest level in a single day since the end of June.

According to real-time statistics from Johns Hopkins University, as of 9:30 on August 20, Beijing time, the cumulative number of confirmed cases in Turkey reached 253,108, and a total of 6,039 deaths were reported.

Reuters pointed out that Turkey eased epidemic control measures on June 1, which led to a rebound in July -- the number of new cases has been hovering around 1,000 for three consecutive weeks. At present, the Turkish government is beginning to impose fines on people who do not wear masks and do not maintain social distancing in public.