Turkey's innovative COVID vaccine candidate on WHO list

ANKARA

Turkey's innovative coronavirus vaccine candidate based on virus-like particles (VLP) has entered the World Health Organization (WHO) list, the country's industry and technology minister said on Wednesday.

"Developed as part of the vaccine studies of the COVID-19 Turkey Platform of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), the vaccine is the fourth VLP-based vaccine to begin human trials in the world," Mustafa Varank said on Twitter.

The COVID-19 vaccine candidate, developed by Mayda Gursel from Middle East Technical University and Ihsan Gursel from Bilkent University in a joint project, is based on the principle of mimicking a non-infectious form of the virus.

The minister also posted a photo of the scientists with a note saying that it was taken before the phase-1 human trials started at Ankara Oncology Hospital on March 27.

*Writing by Yunus Girgin in Ankara