Turkovac is effective against delta and alpha variants, while studies on omicron effectiveness continuing rapidly, said professor Aykut Özdarendeli, who helped develop the Turkish-made COVID-19 vaccine.
Özdarendeli, who participated in the January assembly meeting of the Kayseri Chamber of Commerce (KTO), said that the pandemic has continued for two years and that they started vaccination studies with the first cases in Turkey.
Özdarendeli explained that they have been working on the development of a vaccine against the Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) disease since 2010, and that the knowledge and experience gained during that research contributed to the development of Turkovac.
Stating that they are the first group to isolate the virus in Turkey at the end of March 2020, Özdarendeli stated that Phase 1 studies started in November 2020, following the laboratory studies.
Emphasizing that finding the vaccine is a long process, Özdarendeli reminded that the Turkovac vaccine was approved for emergency use at the end of December 2021.
“With Turkovac, I think that the trained manpower that can respond to such pandemics and epidemics has started to form in our country. As the Vaccine Research Development and Application Center, we continue our work for both epidemics and pandemics. Currently, we continue to work on variants. Turkovac has shown that it is protective against alpha and delta (variants). Work on omicron variant continues at full speed,” he said.
