Turkey 3rd in developing COVID-19 vaccines: Erdogan
- Istanbul, Xinhua
- 10 August 2020, 05:56
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed that Turkey has become the third country to develop vaccines locally against COVID-19 after the US and China.
Erdogan said the COVID-19 Turkey Platform, founded by the TUBITAK (the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) is currently working on eight different vaccines and 10 different medication projects.
He noted that two vaccine candidates have successfully completed the animal tests, and one of them has received ethical approval to move on to the clinical trial on humans.
At the opening ceremony of the TUBITAK Excellence Centers in the northwestern province of Kocaeli on Sunday, he said Turkey has been making significant progress in developing vaccines and drugs against COVID-19 collaborating with state and private sectors and universities.
There are now over 19.7 million confirmed COVID-19 cases globally, with over 729,000 fatalities and more than 12 million recoveries, according to Johns Hopkins University.
