<p>The world's first human challenge trial in which volunteers were deliberately exposed to Covid-19 to advance research into the disease was found to be safe in healthy young adults, one of the companies running the study said on Wednesday.</p>.<p>The data supports the safety of this model which could theoretically provide a "plug and play" platform for testing therapies and vaccines using the original Covid-19 strain as well as variants of the virus, Open Orphan, which carried out the study, said in a statement.</p>.<p>Open Orphan is running the project, launched a year ago, with Imperial College London, the UK government's vaccines task force and the clinical company hVIVO.</p>.<p>The trial infected 36 healthy male and female volunteers aged 18-29 years with the original SARS-CoV-2 strain of the virus and closely monitored them in a controlled quarantined setting. They will be followed up for 12 months after discharge from the quarantine facility.</p>.<p>No serious adverse events occurred, and the human challenge study model was shown to be safe and well tolerated in healthy young adults, the company said.</p>.<p>With the model established, it said it should be able to contract or conduct Covid-19 human challenge studies in 2022, subject to individual ethics and regulatory approvals.</p>.<p><strong>Check out latest DH videos here</strong></p>
<p>The world's first human challenge trial in which volunteers were deliberately exposed to Covid-19 to advance research into the disease was found to be safe in healthy young adults, one of the companies running the study said on Wednesday.</p>.<p>The data supports the safety of this model which could theoretically provide a "plug and play" platform for testing therapies and vaccines using the original Covid-19 strain as well as variants of the virus, Open Orphan, which carried out the study, said in a statement.</p>.<p>Open Orphan is running the project, launched a year ago, with Imperial College London, the UK government's vaccines task force and the clinical company hVIVO.</p>.<p>The trial infected 36 healthy male and female volunteers aged 18-29 years with the original SARS-CoV-2 strain of the virus and closely monitored them in a controlled quarantined setting. They will be followed up for 12 months after discharge from the quarantine facility.</p>.<p>No serious adverse events occurred, and the human challenge study model was shown to be safe and well tolerated in healthy young adults, the company said.</p>.<p>With the model established, it said it should be able to contract or conduct Covid-19 human challenge studies in 2022, subject to individual ethics and regulatory approvals.</p>.<p><strong>Check out latest DH videos here</strong></p>