BEIJING (Reuters) – A candidate for coronavirus vaccine developed by a unit of the China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) has been shown to be safe and trigger anti-inflammatory immune responses in early and mid-stage studies, researchers said .
FILE PHOTO: The company logo of Sinopharm Group Co Ltd is displayed at a news conference on the company’s annual results in Hong Kong, China March 29, 2016. REUTERS / Bobby Yip / File Photo
The candidate has already moved into a trial in the late stages, one of a handful of candidates being tested on several thousand people to see if they are effective enough to win regulatory approval.
Sinopharm is testing the potential vaccine in the United Arab Emirates in a Phase 3 trial that is expected to recruit 15,000 people because China has too few new cases to be a useful trial site.
The state-owned company will also supply the candidate to Pakistan as part of a trial agreement, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The shot did not cause any serious side effects, according to a paper published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by scientists involved in Sinopharm and other China-based diseases for disease control and research institutes.
The results were based on data from 320 healthy adults in Phase 1 and 2 tears.
The candidate triggered robust antibody responses in inoculated humans, but it remained unknown if that was enough to prevent COVID-19 infection, said researchers developing the vaccine, the paper said.
The chairman of Sinopharm told state media last month that a potential vaccine could be ready by the end of this year with Phase 3 tests expected after about three months.
The novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 750,000 people worldwide, has developed a race for a vaccine. More than 150 candidate faxes are being developed and tested around the world.
Russia became the first country to give regulatory approval to a vaccine after less than two months of human testing, and a shot developed by Chinese firm CanSino Bilogics (6185.HK) has been deleted for use in the military.
China is leading the development of at least eight vaccine candidates in various stages of clinical trials.
Report by Roxanne Liu and Tony Munroe in Beijing; Edited by Stephen Coates
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