Defense Ministry-run Institute for Biological Research said to prepare further experiments before moving on to human trials, hopes to have finished product within a year

During the trials, two groups of rodents were infected with the coronavirus, but only one group had first been given the vaccine. Whereas the unvaccinated group became sick, the vaccinated rodents remained healthy.

Testing on rodents is a key preliminary stage in developing medicines and enables further testing to begin on other animals. If those are also successful, the trials will move to humans to check the vaccine’s effectiveness and for any side effects, the report said.

Earlier this month, the laboratory confirmed that it had isolated an antibody it believed could be used to develop treatments for COVID-19, and that it was ahead of the world in those efforts.

That development would not be useful in the creation of a vaccine, but would rather be a move toward a drug treatment for those who have already contracted the disease.

While a number of scientific institutions around the world have discovered antibodies capable of destroying the COVID-19 virus, the laboratory said at the time it was the first in the world to reach three major milestones: finding an antibody that destroys the virus; that targets this coronavirus specifically; and that is monoclonal, lacking additional proteins that can cause complications for patients.

The secretive research institute was thrust into the headlines after outgoing defense minister Naftali Bennett announced the isolation of the antibody.

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