Riyadh, November 13, 2021, SPA -- King Abdullah International Medical Research Center at the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs (KAIMRC), in cooperation with Oxford University, has concluded the first Saudi clinical study - phase one - conducted to determine the safety and immunogenicity of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) vaccine. The process started with the development of the vaccine for MERS through research cooperation between the KAIMRC team and Oxford University in 2015. The vaccine was tested in the laboratory and then tested on experimental mice that demonstrated the immunity and effectiveness of the vaccine, after which the vaccine was transferred for testing in the Kingdom where the virus is endemic since its discovery in 2012. In 2017, KAIMRC led a joint research project supported by KAIMRC and the livestock agency at the Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture. The project set up research partnerships that joined a research team from Oxford University, King Abdulaziz University, the International Vaccine Institute in Korea, Marburg University in Germany, and Kent University in Britain. The joint research team analyzed and tested the safety, immunogenicity, and efficacy of the vaccine (ChAdOx1-MERS) to be used as a vaccine for immunizing camels against the MERS virus in nearly two-year study. By 2019, KIMARK and Oxford announced the launch of a first-phase clinical study led by Dr. Nayef Al-Harbi and the lead clinical researcher for this study, Dr. Mohamed Boussaid, and a team from the King Abdullah International Center for Medical Research in the National Guard Health Affairs, which aimed to examine the safety and immunogenicity of a MERS vaccine on healthy volunteers which was completed early 2021, and the results were published in November 2021 in the international scientific journal "The Lancet", where the results concluded that the vaccine is safe and gives strong immunity. --SPA 18:59 LOCAL TIME 15:59 GMT 0020 www.spa.gov.sa/w1650932