State-owned pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm Group has made massive progress on its latest coronavirus vaccine candidate. The Chinese company announced that the second inactivated vaccine of its bioscience unit, China National Biotech Group Co Ltd (CNBG), had received clinical trial approval from the National Medical Products Administration on Monday after showing promising initial test results.
The vaccine that is being developed by CNBG is in collaboration with the Beijing Institute of Biological Products Co Ltd and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The company is preparing to launch phase-2 human trials for the vaccine with assistance from the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products and the Wuhan Institute of Virology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
CNBG originally received approval for clinical trials in early April for what was essentialy the world's first inactivated vaccine treatment for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Due to the solid results from the treatment's preclinical trial studies, its approval for human trials was accelerated through a fast-track channel with the support of several government agencies.
CNBG president, Yang Xiaoming, mentioned in a statement that the companies around the world are racing to develop a treatment for the coronavirus disease but the race itself is not a competition but a race to save as many lives as possible. Yang added that the results of the company's vaccine are encouraging and he hopes that it can be used to treat patients around the world as soon as possible.
The type of treatment the company has developed uses nonliving or inactivated viruses that are no longer able to cause damage. The aim of injecting the deactivated viruses into the body is to stimulate the immune system to develop a stronger immune response.
Compared to other countries, China has a much stronger background and foundation in developing inactivated vaccines. The type of treatment has also proven to be very infected against a number of previously deadly diseases, including hepatitis A, poliomyelitis, influenza, and hand, foot, and mouth disease.
Apart from inactivated vaccines, several Chinese biotech companies are exploring other potential treatments. China is focusing on five particular approaches to combat COVID-19. These include inactivated vaccines, adenovirus vector vaccines, recombinant protein vaccines, influenza vector vaccines, and nucleic acid vaccines.
So far, Chinese health regulators have approved on type of recombinant adenovirus treatment and three inactivated vaccines for clinical trials. Aside from CNBG's treatment, another inactive vaccine developed by Beijing-based Sinovac Research and Development Co Ltd is also showing promising results and is set for further clinical trials.
