China is building a new COVID-19 vaccine factory that is capable of boosting annual production of a shot developed by a medical research institute to between 500 million and 1 billion doses, state-backed media said on Wednesday.
The vaccine, developed by the Institute of Medical Biology of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (IMBCAMS), is one of seven shots approved for use in China.
Phase I/II clinical trials proved the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine, which can quickly trigger an immune response in recipients, read the report.
At day 14 after two shots, the seroconversion rates of the neutralizing antibodies and anti-S antibodies reached 96 percent and 99.33 percent, respectively. Research also showed that antibodies triggered by the vaccine can cross-neutralize variants of the novel coronavirus.
The vaccine requires two shots to be administered at an interval of two to four weeks to build immunity in recipients.
The four other inactivated vaccines approved in China were developed by Sinopharm Group, Sinovac Biotech and Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products.
A recombinant adenovirus vector COVID-19 vaccine co-developed by Tianjin-based CanSinoBIO and a team led by Chen Wei, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a researcher at the Institute of Military Medicine under the Academy of Military Sciences, has been approved. So has a recombinant subunit protein vaccine developed by Anhui Zhifei Longcom. Both have been authorized for emergency use in China.
An inhaled version of the CanSino vaccine has been submitted for emergency use authorization.
