Frankfurt am Main-German biotech firm CureVac announced Monday the start of final phase clinical trials for its coronavirus vaccine before seeking approval from regulators.
The company said more than 35,000 people would take part in the tests in Europe and South America.
“The first volunteer has been recruited,” CureVac said in a statement .
Germany is battling an explosion of new coronavirus infections and is imposing a partial lockdown from Wednesday.
CureVac follows Germany’s BioNTech which has already gained approval in the United States, Britain and Canada for its vaccine developed with US pharma giant Pfizer.
Both vaccines use a new technology based on mRNA. The process entails injecting a short sequence of viral genetic material to trigger an immune response by producing proteins acting against the virus.