A team of experts has claimed that China’s vaccine candidate BBIBP-CorV, which aims to eliminate the SARS-CoV-2 virus, is safe and effective. They have said that the vaccine has been able to prompt an antibody response. This study has been published in The Lancet Infectious Disease Journal. A similar clinical trial has come up with the same findings for a different vaccine, which as well claims to kill the COVID19 virus completely. However, that vaccine has been tested on people who are under 60 years. Well, the new study on BBIBP-CorV has included people in the age range of 18 to 80 years. Experts have found that an antibody response has been seen in all the participants.
Experts have said that participants who have been 60 years or above have responded slowly as compared to people aged between 18 to 59 years. People who have been in the age range of 60 or above have taken 42 days before antibodies have been detected in all the participants. At the same time, people under the age group of 18 to 59 years have taken only 28 days. The lead author of the study Xiaoming Yang has said that the main aim of the vaccine is to protect elderly people who are at a higher risk of being diagnosed with severe COVID19 infection. Such vaccines are usually less effective for old people as they age their immune system starts declining. Hence, it is quite heartening news that the new vaccine can trigger an immune response in elderly people as well. Experts inform that the BBIBP-CorV vaccine is designed on a sample virus, which has been extracted from a patient in China.
Experts have grown the stocks of the virus in the lab with the help of cell lines. They later have deactivated it with a chemical compound called beta-proprionolactone. This vaccine consists of a killed virus assorted with another chemical aluminum hydroxide, it is known as an adjuvant. It improves immune responses, said the experts. The first phase of the study has been designed to determine the safe dose of the vaccine. It has included around 96 people aged between 18 to 59 years and the second group has included 96 elderly people in the age group of 60 years and above. The vaccine has been examined at three different dose levels along with two shots given on day zero and 28 within each group. In the second phase of the study, experts have identified the optimal timings for vaccination. All the participants of the study have been told to report immediately if they suffer any side effects within the first 7 days after each dose.