Studies on the efficacy of the Turkish-developed COVID-19 vaccine, Turkovac, is beginning on youth aged 16-18 in Turkey.
Pointing to the ongoing studies of the domestic vaccine, Ankara City Hospital General Hospital Chief Physician Ihsan Ateş said, “Our Turkovac study on BioNTech, called Phase-2B, which we started last week, continues rapidly in 10 centers. As of today, we will start our work for adolescents. Next week, we will start primary vaccination and booster dose studies in pregnant women.”
President of the Vaccine Institute Prof. Dr. Ateş Kara reminded that Turkovac’s study data on adults demonstrated the effectiveness of the vaccine and that the domestic vaccine was put into service after the emergency use approval.
Pointing out that the next step is studies for children aged 18 and under, Kara said, “In this study, we want to show the efficacy and safety of the vaccine in our pediatric age group. It is a study aimed at it. When we evaluate in general, it is known that these age groups actually respond much better, but this needs to be shown. It will start with the age range of 16-18 in the form of a preliminary study and will continue to cover other age groups from now on.”
He emphasized that the effects on adolescents will be evaluated with a small group.
“We do not expect any difference in the adolescent group as well, but we have to see and show it scientifically. Our goal is to plan a study involving 517 children in total,” Kara said.
When asked whether only Turkovac will be given to the volunteers, Kara replied said the volunteers will be given both Sinovac and Turkovac jabs.
