Germany's Paul Ehrlich Research Institute is set to start the first clinical trial of the coronavirus vaccine in the country.
"The Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, Federal Institute for Vaccines and Biomedicines, has authorised the first clinical trial of a vaccine against COVID-19 in Germany. The authorisation of this trial is the result of a careful assessment of the potential risk/benefit profile of the vaccine candidate. Based on extensive scientific advice to the medicine developer, BioNTech, in the preliminary phase, the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut was able to complete the authorisation procedure within four days. Trials of vaccine candidates in humans are an important milestone on the road to safe and efficacious vaccines against COVID-19 for the population in Germany and internationally," the institute said in a statement.
As the first phase of the clinical trial, 200 health volunteers, aged between 18 and 55, will be vaccinated, "in each case with one or more than one variants of the vaccine, each of which is slightly modified," the institute added.
"After an observational waiting period, additional volunteers of the same age range will be vaccinated in the second part of the clinical trial," the statement read on.
Germany has confirmed 143,457 COVID-19 cases so far, with the death toll reaching 4,598.