China Has 5 Vaccine Candidates in Human Trials, With More Coming
China Launches More Virus Vaccine Candidates, Tests Thousands
(Bloomberg) --
China has a total of five possible vaccines for the coronavirus already in human trials and more will be approved next month, signaling the Asian nation’s rapid progress in the race for immunization.
The five vaccines have been tested on more than 2,000 people in phase II trials which are expected to finish in July, said Zeng Yixin, vice minister of the National Health Commission, at a press briefing on Friday in Beijing. Phase II is the second of three phases of human trials that medications must go through before being approved for general use.
No serious side effects have been reported yet among phase II patients, said Zeng, adding that more vaccine candidates will be approved to go into human trials in June.
Chinese researchers are at the forefront of efforts to halt a pandemic that’s sickened over 4.4 million people worldwide and killed over 300,000. While there are over 100 vaccines in development globally, only around 10 have reached the crucial final stage of human testing.
A working vaccine is the best hope for countries to re-open their suffering economies and resume normal life without a surge in cases. But vaccines typically take years to develop and still do not exist for many diseases, like HIV.
Chinese companies, backed by state resources including the military, have more vaccines in development than any other country and appear to have tested them more widely. American drugmaker Moderna Inc. and researchers from Oxford University are furthest along among western efforts.
But with China’s epidemic having come under control, its researchers may face a roadblock as they progress to phase III. In earlier phases, experimental vaccines are administered to hundreds of healthy individuals to see whether they’re safe and can elicit an immune response.
It’s phase III -- involving a control group of individuals who receive placebos or remain unvaccinated -- that shows if those who have received the vaccine are able to steer clear of infection more than those who did not. This requires both groups, the vaccinated and the control, to be in an environment where the virus is still spreading.
With few new cases of infection in China now, some Chinese drugmakers like Tianjin-based CanSino Biologics Inc. and Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech Ltd. are pursuing the option of conducting phase III trials in other countries.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
With assistance from Bloomberg