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Updated: Apr 29, 2020 03:00 IST

There is hope in the scientific community after initial results showed that the vaccine produced by the Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group showed promising results when tested on monkeys in a laboratory in the US.

ChAdOx1 MERS vaccine is currently undergoing human trials in the UK since last week. The trial covering thousands of volunteers in Bristol, London, Southampton and Oxford is seen to be ahead of the nearly 80 similar projects across the globe.

Reporting the data that’s yet to be peer-reviewed, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Montana said, “An investigational vaccine called ChAdOx1 MERS protected two groups of rhesus macaques from disease caused by Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). MERS-CoV is a relative of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).”

“The rhesus macaque is pretty much the closest thing we have to humans,” Vincent Munster, who conducted the test on monkeys, told The New York Times, noting that scientists were still analysing the result.