The US began testing the second COVID-19 vaccine on 30,000 people

A large-scale trial of over 30,000 volunteers for the COVID-19 vaccine was developed by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech to determine the vaccine's safety, effectiveness and optimal dosage.

In early July, Pfizer and BioNTech published preliminary data showing that one of their vaccines, known as BNT162b1, was able to trigger immune antibody and T-cell immune responses safely at stage 1-2 test.

All Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccines use genetic material fragments to stimulate the human body to make antibodies against the virus. Pfizer and BioNTech's first "candidates" target part of the prickly protein the viral structure used to invade host cells. The second vaccine which targets the entire spine structure is being transferred to advanced tests.

Dr. Ugur Sahin, founder of BioNTech, said:

"This decision reflects our main goal of creating a well-tolerated vaccine, ensuring high quality standards and delivering the market as quickly as possible. In addition, we continue to evaluate other companies' vaccine candidates, as part of a separate COVID-19 vaccine list."

Moncef Slaoui, a key adviser for the US COVID-19 vaccine production campaign, said that building new products on existing platforms would allow speeding up the development process while ensuring safety.

If all goes well, Pfizer and BioNTech will apply for a production license as early as October. If authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), they can supply up to 100 million dose by the end of 2020 and about 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021.

In mid-July, the US Department of Health and Defense announced a $ 1.95 billion agreement with Pfizer to produce 100 million doses of vaccine.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech is one of 25 vaccines entering clinical trials worldwide. Meanwhile, according to statistics from Johns Hopkins University, the US has more than 4.2 million cases of nCoV infection and more than 148,000 deaths.