China scientists work on vaccines for coronavirus
Print Edition
MORE vaccines for the novel coronavirus are expected to enter clinical trials as soon as possible in China, officials said yesterday.
Chinese scientists have been racing to develop COVID-19 vaccines by five approaches: inactivated vaccines, genetic engineering subunit vaccines, adenovirus vector vaccines, nucleic acid vaccines and vaccines using attenuated influenza virus as vectors, said Wang Junzhi, an academic with the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
He said vaccine safety has been a priority in research and development. So far, most teams are expected to complete preclinical research in April and some are moving forward faster.
Some research team has been enrolling volunteers and applied for clinical trials with the National Medical Products Administration, he added.
Wang noted the research and development of COVID-19 vaccines in China, not slower than foreign counterparts, has been carried out in a scientific, standardized and orderly way.
A vaccine called mRNA-1273 developed by US National Institutes of Health scientists and collaborators at biotechnology company Moderna began in Seattle its first human trial on Monday.
Lei Chaozi, an official from the Ministry of Education, said that the flu viral vector-based vaccine is under animal testing for safety and efficacy tests and scheduled to apply for the clinical trial by the end of April.
The animal testing for recombinant protein-based subunit vaccines is also underway and the country is capable of producing high-quality and high-purity proteins for vaccines on a large scale, according to Lei.
As for nucleic acid-based vaccines, Lei said that China is stepping up related studies based on past experience combating MERS and will speed up tests for the safety and efficacy of the vaccines.
Some universities and colleges have also isolated neutralizing antibodies against COVID-19 from the blood of recovered patients, which will be able to provide a three-week immunity.
Race against time
The ministry has called on universities and colleges with advantages, including Peking University, Tsinghua University and Xiamen University, as well as scientific research institutions and related enterprises to speed up research on the COVID-19 vaccine since the Chinese Lunar New Year, Lei said.
Universities also have been racing against time to develop testing products for the novel coronavirus, including detection kits for nucleic acid and antigen and antibody testing.
So far, seven kinds of testing kits developed by universities in collaboration with enterprises have been put into clinical use.
He added vaccine research conducted by Chinese universities and colleges has been pushed forward following regulations and laws as expected.
Qin Chuan, a researcher from the Institute of Laboratory Animal Sciences under the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said Chinese researchers have developed animal models including humanized transgenic mouse models and Rhesus monkey models that have helped deepen the understanding of the novel coronavirus.
Animal models help researchers identify transmission routes of the virus, screen possible drugs and make sure the vaccines are safe and effective.
According to Qin, eight COVID-19 vaccines are currently under evaluation by the CAMS and some have been completed.
China has completed the clinical research of Favipiravir, an antiviral drug that has shown good clinical efficacy against the novel coronavirus disease, an official said yesterday.
Favipiravir, the influenza drug which was approved for clinical use in Japan in 2014, has shown no obvious adverse reactions in the clinical trial, said Zhang Xinmin, director of the China National Center for Biotechnology Development under the Ministry of Science and Technology, at a press conference.
More than 80 patients have participated in the clinical trial at the Third People’s Hospital of Shenzhen, south China’s Guangdong Province, including 35 patients taking Favipiravir and 45 patients on a control group.
Results showed that patients receiving Favipiravir treatment turned negative for the virus in a shorter time compared with patients in the control group.
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