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A Chinese COVID-19 vaccine candidate based on the inactivated whole SARS-CoV-2 virus is safe and elicits an antibody response, according to findings from a small early-phase randomized clinical trial published Thursday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. .
The latest study included participants between the ages of 18 and 80 and found that antibody responses were induced in all recipients. It took 42 days for participants 60 years and older to detect antibodies in all recipients, compared with 28 days for participants 18 to 59 years old.
The trial was not designed to evaluate the efficacy of the vaccine, so it is not possible to say whether the vaccine-induced antibody responses, called BBIBP-CorV, are sufficient to protect people from SARS-CoV infection. two.
BBIBP-CorV is developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products, which is affiliated with the state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm).
The authors also noted that the interpretation of the results of this study is limited by the short duration of follow-up.
According to The Lancet, there are currently 42 vaccines for COVID-19 in clinical trials. Candidate vaccines in clinical trials vary in type and include plasmid DNA vaccines, inactivated virus vaccines, adenovirus vector vaccines, RNA vaccines, protein subunit vaccines, and virus-like particulate vaccines. Some of these have already been shown to be safe and can elicit immune responses in early-phase clinical trials.
“Our findings indicate that a booster vaccine is necessary to achieve the highest antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 and could be important for protection. This provides useful information for a phase 3 trial,” said Yang Xiaoming, one of the study authors and professor at the Beijing Institute of Biological Products.
(Top Image: Inactivated COVID-19 Vaccine BBIBP-CorV Demonstrated at China International Trade in Services Fair, Beijing, China, September 5, 2020. / CFP)
