Germany has authorized its first clinical test of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, the country's regulatory body said Wednesday, green-lighting trials on human volunteers for an RNA vaccine developed by German firm Biontech and U.S. giant Pfizer.

"The Paul-Ehrlich-Institut... has authorized the first clinical trial of a vaccine against COVID-19 in Germany," the regulatory body said in a statement. It added that approval was the "result of a careful assessment of the potential risk/benefit profile of the vaccine candidate."

The trial will be conducted on 200 healthy people aged between 18 and 55 in the first stage, and on further people, including those at higher risk from the disease, in a second stage.

But it's not immediately clear when the trial will begin.

"We are pleased to have completed pre-clinical studies in Germany and will soon initiate this first-in-human trial ahead of our expectations," CEO and co-founder of Biontech Ugur Sahin said in the statement.

It was the fourth in human trials to have been authorized worldwide. 

The other three experimental vaccine were developed by CanSino Biologics and the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, U.S.' Inovio Pharmaceuticals, as well as Moderna Therapeutics and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) document.

The UK has also announced that it will conduct human trials for a COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday.

Read more:

Human COVID-19 vaccine trials to begin on Thursday – UK health secretary

(Cover: A medic conducts a swab test during a media event at a drive-through coronavirus testing checkpoint in Munich, Germany, March 11, 2020./ Reuters)