CanSino Biologics Inc. of China announced on Sunday, September 4, that the country's drug regulator had approved the recently created COVID-19 vaccine for use as a booster in an emergency situation. This might be advantageous for the company's operations.
The National Medical Products Administration has given the go-ahead to CanSino's adenovirus-vectored COVID-19 vaccine for inhalation, the company reported in a filing on Sunday.
"The approval will have a positive impact on the company's performance if the vaccine is subsequently purchased and used by relevant government agencies," CanSino said.
The business issued a warning, however, saying that rival vaccines in China that have already received government approval or are through clinical trials will present it with stiff competition.
One of just two new vaccines against the disease that China has approved in more than a year is Livzon Pharmaceutical Group Inc.'s COVID-19 vaccine as a booster, Livzon announced on Friday. If Livzon's vaccine were made available to the general public, it would provide China's 1.4 billion people, 90% of whom have already had vaccinations, with more alternatives for boosters.
Out of the seven domestically made vaccines that the nation approved for use between 2020 and 2021, the majority of people in China have been given injections of inactivated vaccines from Sinovac or Sinopharm as a first vaccination.
Data showed that taking a third Sinovac or Sinopharm dose resulted in lower antibody readings against the Omicron variant than utilizing other vaccines, including domestic non-inactivated choices and foreign mRNA products made by Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna.
Chinese officials claimed that the two medicines that have lately been approved for usage are Sinovac and Sinopharm's goods and Livzon's protein-based vaccine, which uses a different technology. The identity of the other person is not officially known.
Additionally, CanSino stated that it was unsure of the exact date that its vaccine would be able to hit the market because more administrative approvals are still required, and sales would be contingent on the COVID-19 situation both domestically and internationally as well as China's vaccination rate.
COVID-19 outbreaks have recently increased in China. Shenzhen, a major tech hub in the south, imposed a weekend lockdown on most of the city on Saturday, while Chengdu, a major city of 21 million people in the southwest, did the same on Thursday.
In comparison to the 1,988 new cases reported the day before, mainland China reported 1,848 new coronavirus cases on Sept. 3. These cases included both symptomatic and asymptomatic illnesses.
