Dubai: Italians are claiming they have made the world's first coronavirus vaccine that work on humans, Science Times reported on Tuesday.
"According to the tests carried out at Rome's infectious-disease Spallanzani Hospital, an Italian coronavirus vaccine has antibodies generated in mice that work on human cells," the report stated.
Researchers in Rome's Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases said they found that the vaccine has neutralised the virus in human cells.
Lazzaro Spallanzani was the first research centre in Europe to isolate the genomic sequence of COVID-19.
Luigi Aurisicchio, CEO of Italian pharmaceutical company Takis, told ANSA that tests carried out at Rome's infectious-disease Spallanzani Hospital, has the first time in the world shown that a candidate vaccine has neutralized the virus in human cells.
He claimed it is the most advanced stage of testing of a candidate vaccine created in Italy. He said that human tests are expected after this summer.
If reports are true (as this claim states), it would be the first since the global race for a coronavirus vaccine begun.
5 vaccine candidates, 70 vaccine trials
There are at least 70 COVID-19 vaccines in the works, with several undergoing in human trials, WHO reported in April.
There are 5 vaccine candidates in advanced stages of human trials.
Luigi Aurisicchio, the CEO of Takis, a firm developing the medicatio, told the Italian news agency ANSA that so far, this is the most advanced stage of testing of a candidate vaccine created in Italy. Human tests are expected to begin in summer.
Aurisicchio claimed that that Takis is exploring more interesting technological platforms with an American drug company, LineaRx.
He said the company is currently working with an all-Italian and innovative technology, tested in Italy, which will be made available for everyone once testing is completed.
For this to succeed, however, they need the support not only from their government but as well as international institutions and partners who might want to extend their hand to help speed up the process.
"This is not a competition. If we join our forces and skills together, we can all win against coronavirus," Aurisicchio was quoted as saying.
On Tuesday, AP reported that Fauci had been been invited to work at one of Italy's top hospitals.
Dr. Giuseppe Ippolito, the scientific director of the Lazzaro Spallanzani hospital in Rome, told AP that Fauci's knowledge of infectious disease was unparalleled.
"There is no one else who has written the history of medicine and infectious diseases like Tony Fauci," Ippolito told the AP. "There is no one else who has been able to write about, and to decrypt, the secrets of infectious diseases."
Ippolito added that removing Fauci from his position in the US — as some have speculated might happen after Trump shared a tweet that said #FireFauci — "would be disastrous news not only for the US, but for the whole international community."
