This is the first time that an African country has carried out clinical trials for a serum against Covid-19.
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Egypt announced in mid-November the launch of clinical trials of a 100% Egyptian vaccine against Covid-19. This is the first time that an African country has made such an announcement regarding a serum against Sars-Cov-2. The Covi Vax – that’s its name – was developed by researchers at the National Center for Research (NCR) and a private biotechnology company, Vaccine Valley, reports Egyptian news site Ahram Online.
“The first phase of the trials involves volunteers aged 18 to 50 and not suffering from any chronic disease”, said Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar, the Minister of Higher Education and Acting Minister of Health, at a press conference on November 15, 2021. According to Professor Ossama Azmy, responsible for these tests, they should last from “six to nine months”, Ahram Online says. Already tested on “up to 540 animal species, the Egyptian vaccine has been shown to be effective against all variants of Covid-19, including Delta “, known to be the most contagious to date. Covi Vax has been approved by the Egyptian Medicines Authority (EDA) “to complete preclinical studies”, that is “18 months after the NCR-affiliated Center of Scientific Excellence for Virology launched a series of pandemic research and studies “.
This is not the first time that Egypt has been a pioneer on the continent in the production of serum against Covid-19. It was the first African country where a national production of a foreign vaccine was launched, that of the Chinese serum Sinovac manufactured by the Egyptian company Vacsera. Soon, if the trials are successful, the Covi Vax will be the first vaccine “made in Africa”, objective now targeted by African countries thanks to the pandemic. It will then have to go through the stage of approval by the World Health Organization (WHO).