The government will allow clinical studies that aim to compare the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines being developed by domestic companies against already authorized vaccines. 

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Wednesday that the trials will be allowed in line with revised guidelines for phase three clinical trials on comparing the immunogenicity of COVID-19 vaccines. Such revisions came as part of the government’s efforts to develop a domestic coronavirus vaccine. 

By allowing comparative clinical studies, the government will be able to save costs in recruiting test subjects as the studies would require thousands instead of tens of thousands. The tests are expected to require at least four-thousand test subjects. 

The ministry said it would allow the studies to be conducted with vaccines that have different platforms.