Vaccines Begin Final Testing in Israel
Israel’s recent spike in COVID-19 cases may prove to be a powerful tool in fighting the pandemic, as the State prepares to sign a deal with US based biotech company, Arcturus Therapeutics. Under the arrangement, Arcturus Therapeutics will begin phase 3 human testing of a promising new COVID-19 vaccine in Israel, and in return, Israel will be able to purchase 4 million vaccines, should the tests prove successful.
The reason for the biotech company's choice to actively test their product in Israel is that Israel’s large case count makes it the perfect location for testing the vaccine. In a recent statement, Arcturus Therapeutics CEO Joseph Payne said, “Israel is under some significant challenges with respect to the prevalence of COVID, and it would present an opportunity to do the registration study in Israel...It’s key that you have the study in a place where there’s a substantial amount of COVID present so that you can more quickly prove your vaccine works.”
In addition to this most recent deal, an Israeli institute is preparing to proceed with human testing for their own vaccine this October, after initial tests have shown positive results. The state also signed an agreement with biotech firm, Moderna, to test their new vaccine on Israeli participants. This vaccine, as well as the Arcturus Therapeutics vaccine, have both shown very promising results in triggering robust and durable immune responses to the coronavirus in human trials, and may produce the results that they need to bring this vaccine to the masses as early as September, 2020. When discussing the efficacy of the Moderna vaccine, Moderna Israeli Chief Medical Officer, Tal Zaks, said “The first time we saw the first model, that the vaccine, even if it’s just in mice, successfully stimulated the immune system to identify the virus and neutralize it, I knew that we hadn’t missed anything, that we had the correct vaccine...we saw the first clinical results, when it was clear that in humans we weren’t just getting to antibody levels we were seeing in sick people, which is what we aspired to, but we were getting to even higher levels.” This good news is very timely, as Israel overtakes the US in the number of new coronavirus infections per capita, according to data compiled by a scientific publication based at Oxford University.