Early stage human trials of Oxford University and British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, made COVID-19 vaccine has come successful and declared safe for humans.
The U.S. and European governments have earlier placed a bet on the vaccine.
The vaccine was said to have stimulated a strong immune response in 1,077 participants.
The results of the test carried out by Oxford University were published on Monday in The Lancet medical journal.
Authors suggested that further clinical studies, including older adults, should be done with this vaccine.”
A co-author of the study Prof. Sarah Gilbert,said, “There is still much work to be done before we can confirm if our vaccine will help manage the COVID-19 pandemic, but these early results hold promise.
“As well as continuing to test our vaccine in phase-three trials, we need to learn more about the virus – for example, we still do not know how strong an immune response we need to provoke to effectively protect against Sars-Cov-2 infection.
“If our vaccine is effective, it is a promising option as these types of vaccine can be manufactured at large scale.
“A successful vaccine against Sars-Cov-2 could be used to prevent infection, disease, and death in the whole population, with high-risk populations such as hospital workers and older adults, prioritized to receive vaccination.”
Meanwhile, the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson was enthusiastic about the early-stage Oxford results.
Reacting on his Twitter page , he said, “This is very positive news. A huge well done to our brilliant, world-leading scientists and researchers. There are no guarantees, we’re not there yet & further trials will be necessary — but this is an important step in the right direction.”
