New COVID-19 Vaccine Shows Promise in Monkeys. Next Step: Humans
The vaccine has entered early clinical trials in human volunteers.
By Nicoletta Lanese | Staff Writer

LIVE SCIENCE – April 24, 2020 | An experimental COVID-19 vaccine protected monkeys from catching the viral infection, according to an unreviewed report. The new vaccine has now entered clinical trials in China to test the drug in humans.

Although the animal study, posted April 19 to the preprint database bioRxiv, has not been subject to formal review, scientists took to Twitter to share their first impressions.

(Image: © Shutterstock)

“So, this is the first ‘serious’ preclinical data I have seen for an actual vaccine candidate,” Florian Krammer, a professor in the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, tweeted on April 22. Before being tested in healthy humans, vaccines undergo so-called preclinical tests in animals. The experimental vaccine, developed by the Beijing-based company Sinovac Biotech, showed promising results in rhesus macaques before entering human trials, Krammer noted.

“I’m a fan,” he added in another tweet.