CanSino COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate Approved for Military Use in China

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s military has been given the green light to use a COVID-19 candidate vaccine developed by its research unit and CanSino Biologics (6185.HK) after clinical trials showed it was safe and showed some efficacy, the company said Monday.

Ad5-nCoV is one of China’s eight vaccine candidates approved for home and foreign human trials for respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus. The shot also gained approval for human testing in Canada.

The Chinese Central Military Commission approved the use of the vaccine by the military on June 25 for a period of one year, CanSino said in a presentation. The vaccine candidate was jointly developed by CanSino and a research institute of the Academy of Military Sciences (AMS).

“Ad5-nCoV is currently limited to military use only and its use cannot be expanded to a broader vaccination range without the approval of the Logistics Support Department,” CanSino said, referring to the department of the Central Military Commission that approved the use. military vaccine.

CanSino declined to disclose whether inoculation of the vaccine candidate is mandatory or optional, citing trade secrets, in an email to Reuters.

The military approval follows China’s decision earlier this month to offer two other vaccine candidates to employees of state-owned companies traveling abroad.

Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials of the CanSino vaccine candidate showed that it has the potential to prevent disease caused by the coronavirus, which has killed half a million people worldwide, but its commercial success cannot be guaranteed, the company.

Separately, AMS received approval earlier this month to test its second experimental human coronavirus vaccine.

No vaccine has yet been approved for commercial use against the disease caused by the new coronavirus, but more than a dozen vaccines from more than 100 candidates are being tested in humans worldwide.