Italy claims world's first vaccine to neutralise COVID-19, human trials soon

With world desperately awaiting a vaccine to battle out the Coronavirus, Italian scientists have claimed to come up with one to protect humans from contracting the virus. According to Italy's news agency ANSA, a firm called Takis has invented a Coronavirus vaccine that has antibodies generated in mice that work on human cells. The vaccine has been tested in Rome's Spallanzani Hospital. 

As per latest reports, Luigi Aurisicchio, CEO of  Takis has stated that for the first time the candidate vaccine has neutralised the COVID-19 virus in human cells. He added that this is the most advanced stage of testing of a candidate vaccine created in Italy and human trials are expected after this summer. 

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Vaccine tested on mice

Aurisicchio added that according to Spallanzani Hospital, Takis is the first in the world so far to have demonstrated neutralisation of Coronavirus by a vaccine and it is expected to work on humans too. After a single vaccination, the mice developed antibodies that can block the virus from infecting human cells, Aurisicchio said. Italian researchers remarked that the results are “encouraging and well beyond expectations.” Aurisicchio has also claimed that Takis is exploring more interesting technological platforms with an American drug company, LineaRx.

The Coronavirus has claimed 253,974 lives globally, and each country has stepped up its efforts in battling the pandemic. At present, there are around 70 COVID-19 vaccines that have been developed globally. Out of which, 5 are in advanced stages of human trial. 

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Israel Claims Breakthrough

Israel's Defence Minister Naftali Bennett has claimed that his country has made a significant breakthrough towards the treatment for the deadly virus. The "monoclonal neutralising antibody" developed at the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) "can neutralise it [the disease-causing coronavirus] inside carriers' bodies," Israel's defence minister said in a statement.

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Bennett visited the labs of the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR), a secretive unit that works under the Prime Minister’s Office, in Ness Ziona and was shown the “antibody that attacks the virus in a monoclonal way and can neutralize it within the bodies of those ill,” according to the statement from his office.

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