TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – China has approved a new COVID-19 emergency vaccine, developed by the head of its Disease Control Center, which has added a fifth shot to its arsenal.
Gao Fu, head of China’s CDC, led to the development of a protein subunit vaccine approved by regulators for emergency use last week, the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said in a statement on Monday. said.
It is the fifth coronavirus vaccine approved in China and the fourth to be approved for emergency use. Three of those who received emergency clearance have since been approved for general use. All were developed by Chinese companies.
The latest vaccine was jointly developed by Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The team completed Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials in October and according to the statement, it is currently working on the final phase of trials in Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Indonesia.
The vaccine was approved for use in Uzbekistan on March 1. It is a three-dose shot fired with one month between them, a company spokesman said. Like other vaccines that China has developed so far, it can be stored at normal refrigeration temperatures.
There is no publicly available information in scientific journals with peer-reviewed clinical trial data showing efficacy or safety. A company spokesman said the information could not be shared at this time, but that the company was providing the information to health authorities.
The protein subunit vaccine is similar to many other vaccines approved worldwide in that it trains the body to recognize the vein protein that covers the surface of the coronavirus, although the difference lies in how it tells the body to recognize the protein. . Scientists cultivate a harmless version of the protein in cells and then purify it before it is put together into a vaccine and injected.
China has slowly vaccinated the 1.4 billion people, although four vaccines have been approved for general use. The latest figures, according to government officials at a press conference on Monday in Beijing, are that it administered 64.98 million doses of vaccines.
China has so far considered the most important populations for vaccination, namely health workers, those working at the border or customs, and specific industries chosen by the government. Other groups that have been particularly absent so far compared to many other countries are the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions.
The approved vaccines were previously restricted to adults aged 18-59, as officials cited a lack of clinical trial data for those who are older, although the government appears to be setting the limits now.
“We will immediately carry out mass vaccination of relevant populations,” Li Bin, a vice-chair of the National Health Commission, said on Monday.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported over the weekend that local health centers in certain neighborhoods in Beijing have started offering the vaccines to those aged 60 and over.
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This story has been corrected to show that the vaccine trains the body to recognize the vein protein that covers the surface of the coronavirus, not the surface of the coronavirus vaccine.