Spain gets green light to test homegrown COVID vaccine on humans, PM says

MADRID: Spain's medicines agency has authorized the first round of clinical trials for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Spanish company Hipra, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday.

The early stage clinical trial will recruit dozens of participants from Spanish hospitals to test the drug's safety and tolerability, as well as its immunogenicity and efficacy, the medicines agency said in a statement. Hipra, which has manufacturing bases in Spain and Brazil, said it could produce up to 400 million doses in 2022 and 1.2 billion in 2023.