By the end of the year, more than 2,000 French people will participate in clinical trials



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While the American laboratory Pfizer and the German BioNTech welcome the authorization of their vaccine against Covid-19 in the UK on Wednesday 2 December, where is the research in France? French volunteers will test three vaccine projects in the coming weeks. 41,000 people had registered on Inserm and some of them will start testing vaccine projects from mid-December. The French results will add to those already obtained sometimes by producers from other countries of the world.

French volunteers will begin clinical trials very quickly, explains Professor Odile Launay, who coordinates the vaccine platform. “We were approached by the Janssen laboratories. France is expected to participate on the melody of about 1,000 participants and the start is scheduled for mid-December. The second test, in which France will participate, again up to about 1 000 participants, is a test with AstraZeneca. And again, it’s two injections one month apart. ”

These two trials are in phase 3, the last straight line which consists in verifying the efficacy and tolerance of the vaccine project in humans. Janssen is starting phase 3 and AstraZeneca is finishing it and wants to consolidate its data. Volunteers will receive the vaccine or the placebo and live a normal life. Scientists will be watching over the coming weeks and months if they are contaminated with Covid and have severe forms of the disease.

Finally, a third trial will see the light in early January on the American Moderna vaccine project. It will focus in particular on the question of the efficacy of the product in the elderly. It will be tested on 120 volunteers over the age of 70 and 60 young people. Then we will compare the results. “Why the elderly? Since age is the main risk factor for severe Covid-19, explains Professor Jean-Daniel Lelièvre who will lead this test. Second, because we know that the immune response is generally weaker with age. The study in these particular populations is more than pertinent. ”

41,000 volunteers registered on the French vaccine testing platform. At present, only a small portion will be required for these three clinical trials. But other studies should follow, Inserm assures. There are still many questions that still need to be answered, the researchers say.

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