Theresa May MP praises the work of University of Oxford researchers who are part of an unprecedented vaccine development effort to prevent COVID-19 and welcomes the move to screen healthy volunteers for their upcoming vaccine trial in the Thames Valley Region.
Researchers from the University of Oxford are looking for up to 510 healthy volunteers aged between 18 – 55, who, if they pass screening, will be the first humans to test the new vaccine, called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19. The trial will provide valuable information on the safety aspects of the vaccine, as well as its ability to generate an immune response against the virus. Interested individuals can volunteer to participate on the COVID-19 vaccine website: https://covid19vaccinetrial.web.ox.ac.uk/volunteer
Mrs May said: ‘I welcome the determination and effort from researchers into finding a vaccine for COVID-19 which, if successful, would ultimately save tens of thousands of lives worldwide. The team at Oxford have been working hard on developing a vaccine since early January. They are looking for healthy volunteers from our area. Could you be one? Volunteering could bring a vaccine against COVID-19 closer for us all.’
The trial has been approved by UK regulators and ethical reviewers. Researchers are working as quickly as possible to get the vaccine ready to be used in the trial, which includes further preclinical investigations and production of a larger number of doses of the vaccine.
