Chinese Covid-19 developers will kick off the country’s first clinical trial of using a home-grown mRNA vaccine as a booster shot to protect against Covid-19.
Walvax Biotechnology Co. and partner Suzhou Abogen Biosciences will test the safety and efficacy of their jointly developed mRNA vaccine, known as ARCoV-005, as a reinforcement shot for people fully inoculated with China’s widely used inactivated-virus vaccines, according to a filing published Wednesday by Walvax in the country’s online clinic trial database.
The Phase 3b clinical trial of the shot will start Thursday in Liuzhou, southwest China’s Guangxi region, and will run until Dec. 31. The trial aims to recruit 2,000 people above age 18 for the tests.
The Chinese mainland on Wednesday reported two new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, both of which were reported in Yunnan Province, the National Health Commission said in its daily report on Thursday.
Wednesday also saw reports of 22 imported cases in nine provincial-level regions, said the commission.
No new deaths related to COVID-19 were reported on Wednesday, said the commission.