Scientists have embarked upon a new project to deliberately expose volunteers to Covid-19 in a bid to advance research and beat new variants.
World’s first human challenge trial was found to be safe in healthy young adults, one of the companies running the study has said.
The data support the safety of this model which could theoretically provide a “plug and play” platform for testing therapies and vaccines using the original Covid-19 strain as well as variants of the virus, Open Orphan, which carried out the study, said in a statement.
The trial infected 36 healthy male and female volunteers aged 18-29 years with the original Sars-CoV-2 strain of the virus and closely monitored them in a controlled quarantined setting. They will be followed up for 12 months after discharge from the quarantine facility.
No serious adverse events occurred, and the human challenge study model was shown to be safe and well-tolerated in healthy young adults, the company said.