Spain's medicines agency has authorised the first round of clinical trials for the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Spanish company Hipra, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said.

The early-stage clinical trial will recruit dozens of participants from Spanish hospitals to test the drug's safety and tolerability, as well as its immunogenicity and efficacy, the medicines agency said in a statement.

Hipra, a pharmaceutical lab that mainly researches and manufactures veterinary vaccines, has been working on two Covid-19 shots, according to Reuters.

One is based on the same RNA messenger technology used in Pfizer and Moderna's shots, while the second, which has just received approval for trial, uses a recombinant protein like US-based drugmaker Novavax.