Israel Prepares Its Own COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate

Israel's Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) announced its Indiana vesiculovirus (VSV) COVID-19 vaccine candidate named BriLife will begin the first phase of the human testing process with 80 participants over the month of November 2020. If they develop antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the testing will expand to 960 people beginning in December 2020.

The state-run laboratory attached the spikes present on the novel coronavirus onto VSV, giving these portions of the virus a way to attach to the human body, which in turn allows the body to safely produce antibodies against it without being infected with the disease itself, said the IIBR.

Additionally, IIBR said it has already produced 25,000 doses for the first and second phases of the human trials and would be able to produce roughly 15 million doses of the vaccine, reported The Times of Israel on October 25, 2020.