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BEIJING: Chinese vaccine maker Sinovac Biotech plans to begin a clinical trial of its experimental coronavirus vaccine with children and adolescents later this month, expanding its trial into an injection that is already in the final stage of adult study.
Finding a vaccine that works for the entire population, including the very young, could be crucial in preventing outbreaks of the virus, which has caused more than 930,000 deaths worldwide, in schools and kindergartens, which could also affect to teachers and parents.
A total of 552 healthy participants between the ages of three and 17 will take two doses of Sinovac CoronaVac or a placebo in a combined Phase 1 and Phase 2 trial scheduled to begin on September 28 in Hebei province, north of China, according to a registration record released on Wednesday (September 16).
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The trial has already been approved by the Chinese regulator, a Sinovac spokesman said.
China has inoculated at least tens of thousands of its citizens implementing experimental coronavirus vaccines, drawing international interest in their development, despite concerns from experts about the safety of drugs that have not completed testing. standard.
As part of that program, CoronaVac, which is being tested in large-scale, end-stage trials in Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey, has already been delivered to approximately 90 percent of the company’s employees and their families.
The data so far suggests that the virus generally causes milder illness in children compared to adults, but some cases of children requiring intensive care have also been reported, according to the World Health Organization.
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Several hundred children were admitted to US hospitals with a rare but serious inflammatory syndrome, which could include symptoms such as fever, rashes and swollen glands associated with the coronavirus.
Sinovac said earlier this month that CoronaVac appeared to be safe and capable of inducing antibodies in older people, while antibody levels generated by the vaccine were slightly lower than those seen in younger adults, citing preliminary results from a trial of early to middle stage.
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