Pasteur Institute seeks 3,000 volunteers for COVID vaccine nasal spray trial

COVID-19 nasal spray vaccine project staff at Nha Trang Pasteur Institute sorted volunteers’ document files for the trial. — VNA/VnExpress News Photo

HÀ NỘI — Nha Trang Pasteur Institute in the south-central province of Khánh Hoà said it is recruiting 3,000 vaccinated adult volunteers for the Phase 3 clinical trial of a COVID-19 vaccine that is delivered in the form of nasal spray instead of the regular intramuscular injections.

The volunteers should be residents of Quảng Nam and Khánh Hoà provinces who are healthy (or with only mild illness) and in stable condition and have received the last dose of COVID-19 vaccine at least three months ago and never contracted COVID.

They should also be available for four medical examinations from the vaccine development team.

The recruitment programme lasts until April 30, 2022.

The trial length is one year from the day the volunteers receive the vaccine spray.

Trịnh Thị Bích Thuỷ, Director of the Centre for Training and Scientific Management and International Cooperation, said the vaccine was a viral vector vaccine using the influenza virus.

She said after registration, the volunteers would have their biological specimens taken for analysis and undergo a health examination. They will then receive two doses of vaccines in nasal sprays, 14 days between each spray.

Each volunteer will receive VNĐ900,000 as compensation for each follow-up medical examination 12 months after the injection.

“Phase 1 and phase 2 trials of the vaccine have proved its safety and good immunogenicity. The study has been reviewed and approved by regulatory agencies, especially the national council for ethics in biomedical research,” Thuỷ said.

People wishing to apply to the study can directly contact the health centres of the districts, towns and cities where they are residing, the Nha Trang Pasteur Institute, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Quảng Nam Province, or via phone.

Four other countries alongside Việt Nam will participate in the trial: Colombia, the Philippines, South Africa and Indonesia.

Over 206 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Việt Nam so far. — VnExpress News