Sep 18, 2020(Nyamilepedia) — Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) has announced that it will soon launch a Coronavirus vaccine after it received a go ahead from KEMRI’s ethics and review committee, the pharmacy and poisons board and is currently awaiting approval from the ministry of health.
After researching on 122 strains of COVID-19 disease, KEMRI has been able to develop a vaccine, ChAOx1 nCOV- 19.
According to the Kenyan Medical Research Institute, the vaccine is based on an adenovirus vaccine vector and the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein which is already in production but it won’t be ready for some weeks still.
Speaking to the media, KEMRI’s Director General, Professor Kombe Yeri, said the vaccine is currently in final stages (phase 3) and will soon be ready for human trials.
Professor Kombe said the final preparation for the launch of the vaccine has been underway and will soon be known to the public.
Speaking in Swahili, Dr. Kombe said it has been many weeks and therefore Kenyans won’t wait for trial for very long adding that as soon as they finish the preparations people will be welcomed to try to trials.
“Ni wiki kadhaa, hatutakaa sana kabla hii trial maanake tukishaa maliza haya matayarisho, karibuni twaweza anzia hii trial” he said.
To ensure that the vaccine is safe, it will first be tested on a small sample size of 40 covid patients. The patients will be selected on voluntary basis.
If the vaccine works on a small sample, the institute will select a larger sample size of 300 patients.
It will then go through the third stage of a very large size, comprising of thousands of patients before it goes for mass production. These trials will help the researchers know of its ability to generate cure to the body.
Speaking when he was receiving the parliamentary health committee at KEMRI, Professor Kombe said he is very optimistic that the vaccine will be a success.
The Parliamentary health committee chairperson, Hon Sabina chege said that the government will support KEMRI in its trials for it to succeed on its mission.
This trial will be carried out in conjunction with Oxford and KEMRI will put into considerations world health organization’s guidelines.
