Covid: Tayside and Fife vaccine trial has 'tremendous' response
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The trial will take place in Dundee and Kirkcaldy
Hundreds of people from across Tayside and Fife are being asked to participate in a new Covid-19 vaccine trial.
The vaccine - designed by the Belgian company Janssen - uses a genetically modified common cold virus to train the immune system.
The 400 volunteers will receive two injections of the trial vaccine within a two-month period in Dundee and Kirkcaldy.
The study is being led in Scotland by Dundee University and NHS Tayside.
Many volunteers
Prof Jacob George from the university's school of medicine told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme the initial response had been "tremendous".
He said: "We went out on social media on Friday afternoon and we've had many, many people volunteering, but we still need plenty more."
Volunteers, who must be aged 18 or over, will be vaccinated with the first vaccine between now and Christmas, with a booster given two months later.
Some volunteers will be injected with a control placebo.
The trial is expected to be complete in March or April, with data then submitted to regulators for approval.
Prof George said the initial response for volunteers had been "tremendous"
Prof George said: "These trials are absolutely necessary if we want to get the data to guarantee the efficacy of these vaccines that we want to offer to the population."
About 6,000 people are being recruited for the trial in the UK, with a total of 30,000 people taking part worldwide.
The professor said a number of different vaccines would need to be developed to able to immunise the entire world population.
'Multilateral approach'
Last week, BioNTech and co-developers Pfizer said preliminary analysis showed their vaccine could prevent more than 90% of people from getting Covid-19.
Prof George said: "No one vaccine is likely to be suitable for the whole population, we clearly need a multilateral approach to this.
"The ability of one single company to ramp up production and deliver a vaccine for the global population, it is going to be very challenging."
Anyone interested in volunteering can contact the research team via email at tay.ensemble2@nhs.scot
