300 volunteers will get the vaccine over the next few weeks and providing the first phase is successful, phase 2 will start in October when they trial the vaccine on 6,000 volunteers. Imperial appear to be extremely optimistic and are indicating that, providing both trials prove successful, they could have the vaccine ready for worldwide distribution by early 2021.
Oxford University started it’s first phase human trials in April when they tested 1000 volunteers and then announced in mid May that they had progressed to phase II/III human trials, which involves testing 10,260 adults and children.
There are more than 120 COVID-19 vaccines being developed worldwide but, so far, only 13 have reached clinical trials. This includes the 2 UK trials, 5 in China, 3 in the USA and 1 each in Australia, Germany and Russia.
