AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine enters phase 3 trials in US

Coronavirus vaccine by AstraZeneca has reached phase 3 clinical trials in the US. Furthermore, the vaccine is close to being finalised for approval, US President Donald Trump said on Monday.

"I am pleased to announce that AstraZeneca's vaccine has reached Phase 3 clinical trials and has joined various vaccines that are very close to the end. In the United States, we are doing things that people thought were not possible," Trump told reporters.

The phase 3 trial is being implemented as part of Operation Warp Speed, a multi-agency collaboration led by the US Health and Human Services. The programme aims at accelerating the development and manufacturing of medical countermeasures for coronavirus and delivering 300 million doses of an effective vaccine by January 2021.

AstraZeneca is one of the leading contenders in the race to develop coronavirus vaccine. Other companies that have COVID-19 vaccines in phase 3 trials include Moderna Inc and Pfizer.

"In the United States, we're doing things that nobody thought would have been even possible. This is a process that would have taken, in some cases, years, and we did it in a matter of months," Trump also said.

Meanwhile, US cases of the novel coronavirus surpassed 6 million yesterday as many states in the Midwest reported increasing infections. Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota have recently reported record one-day increases in fresh cases, while Montana and Idaho are seeing record numbers of currently hospitalised coronavirus patients.

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