Japanese drugmaker Shionogi & Co. has sealed a deal to conduct a placebo-controlled trial of its COVID-19 vaccine in Vietnam and will be expanding it in the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries, even as criticism of such tests mounts in the scientific community.
The Osaka-based company began testing the efficacy of its shot in Vietnam from Dec. 25, a spokesman at Shionogi said Monday. Participants of the trial, which will eventually total 50,000 volunteers, need to be unvaccinated, the spokesman said, with two-thirds of them receiving the inoculation and others getting a placebo. The company is also planning to analyze whether it’s effective against the omicron strain, the spokesman added.
Vaccine developers only bringing shots to the testing phase now are finding it an uphill battle, with the developed world so highly vaccinated and already moving on to booster shots. That’s left companies such as Shionogi and Chinese pharmaceutical makers such as Walvax Biotechnology Co. and Xiamen Innovax Biotech Co. seeking out developing nations where vaccination rates remain low and the virus is still active.