Israel will soon become one of the first nations to launch a human clinical trial on a potential COVID-19 vaccine, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Thursday.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
Gantz, who toured the Israel Institute for Biological Research to monitor the early stages of its development, said a group of Israelis will start getting shots after the High Holy Days in September.
The institute, which is run under the auspices of the Defense Ministry, has recently said it has had promising results in lab testing for a potential vaccine. Some of those findings were shown to Gantz in his tour on Thursday.
Israel Hayom has learned that the vaccine's production line will be in Israel, but the antibody production – which is less sophisticated – will be carried out abroad due to high costs.
"Just like the Israel Defense Forces has special units that go behind enemy lines to clear the way forward, you are Israel's special forces when it comes to vaccines," Gantz told the institute's staff.
The first phase of the human clinical trial will try to evaluate its safety. The second phase, which may get a green light even as the first phase is being carried out in order to fast-track the process, will determine its effectiveness on a small sample, with the final stage involving widespread injections on a large group of people, while observing a control group, to determine its overall impact in fending off the disease among the population.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
