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On Monday, Johnson and Johnson would test a two-dose covid-19 vaccine with 1000 volunteers participating in the study.
Scientists leading the UK trial have said that across 17 sites, there would be 30,000 participants and they are planning on recruiting 6000 of them.
According to Saul Faust, a professor of paediatric immunology and infectious diseases who is co-leading the trial at the University Hospital Southampton, the participants will be given two shots.
The first dose would be a placebo or the experimental shot, currently called Ad26COV2. The second dose would be that of a placebo 57 days later.
A 60,000 trial of a single shot of the experimental vaccine was launched in September after there was an agreement signed between J&J and the British Government in August.
The company said that if results of the single-shot trial are positive, they would be able to simplify the process of distributing millions of doses when compared to leading rivals who need two doses.
If people don’t return to get their second shot, the efficacy of a double-dose vaccine could be affected.
From an interim data produced after a late-stage trial, rival drugmakers Pfizer and BioNtech said that the potential Covid-19 shot showed more than 90% efficacy against the pandemic disease. Soon, this may be ready for use.
To prompt an immune response, J&J uses a cold virus to deliver genetic material from coronavirus into the body. On the other hand, Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine uses a new technology known as messenger RNA.
For the Ebola vaccine approved this year, a platform known as AdVac was used .
Details of other scientists involved in the two-dose trial was not given by the leading scientists taking care of the trial in UK. However, they mentioned that the trial first begun in Britain.
In March 2021, recruitment into the study would be completed and this trial would last for 12 months.
“It’s really important that we pursue trials of many different vaccines from many different manufacturers and be able then to ensure the supply both to the UK and global population,” Faust told reporters at a briefing.
By Neha Makhija
