Testing will be done in parallel with an Israeli vaccine that is ready for testing.
By Yakir Benzion, United With Israel
The Mossad national intelligence agency brought samples of a Chinese coronavirus vaccine to Israel in order to learn from it and explore new vaccination options in addition to the one currently being produced by Israel’s National Biological Institute in Ness Ziona, a town in central Israel, Channel 12 reported Monday.
Although hundreds of thousands of Chinese have reportedly received the vaccination, the required trials have not yet been completed and it is not yet known how efficient the Chinese vaccine is.
In Israel, the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Health and Biological Institute announced Sunday that the approval was given for the start of the clinical trial for a new Israeli coronavirus vaccine that will be tested in humans. The trial phase will last several months and the experimental stage begins next Sunday with more than 25,000 vaccine doses that have been prepared.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz congratulated the institute on moving to the advanced experimental stage.
“You have taken on a task on an international and historical scale, and today you have taken a significant step on the way to the goal,” Gantz said.
The institute’s director Prof. Shmuel Shapira said he had confidence in the Israeli-developed vaccine.
“I believe in it and in the ability of the institute’s scientists who developed it, and I am convinced that we are bringing a very good, effective and safe vaccine,” Shapira said.
Earlier this year Shapira said he was confident that a vaccine could be produced in Israel.
“We have the ability and knowledge to develop a vaccine for all the citizens of the State of Israel. We are talking about a scope of 10-15 million doses,” Shapira told the government in August.
It seems that the desire to learn from others is not unique to Israel, with recent reports of cyber attacks designed to extract information from Western companies working on vaccine development. Cyber security experts estimate that China is one of the source countries for the attacks.