A Chinese COVID-19 vaccine available by November?
The world is inching closer to procuring a COVID-19 vaccine. While loopholes have been identified in top vaccine contenders, China is all set to launch its experimental vaccine, produced by Sinovax Biotech Limited for the public by November.
This will make China the second country in the world to launch a make a COVID-19 vaccine publically available. The news follows Russia's ambitious launch of its COVID-19 vaccine, earmarked Sputnik V for the public in the month of August.
Currently, China is overseeing late-stage work on as many as five vaccine prototypes, out of which, at least three have surpassed critical stages of development.
How many vaccines are being developed in China?
The promising development was confirmed in an agency reports by an official from the China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“It will be ready very soon. The progress is currently very smooth," said a CDC official.
China, which is the largest producer of vaccines and medical supplies in the world is currently involved in the production of as many as nine out of 30 vaccines which are in the human trial stage.
Interestingly, the news of the vaccine trial being expedited comes after a Chinese virologist, Dr Li-Meng Yan claimed there was enormous evidence that the deadly coronavirus strain, which has now infected over 29.5 million people globally.
Reports also emerged last week which suggested that a novel nasal spray vaccine, developed in Chinese labs was undergoing testing too.
Here's what we know so far
The Chinese vaccine under contention, which has been modelled out of a non-replicating virus strain has been showing effective and safe results in widescale trials. The other vaccines under offering have also been showing impressive results, at par with global competition.
China has also gone ahead and reportedly inoculated at least 12,000 people, including essential workers as part of an emergency authorisation program which started in August.
The Chinese military has also received shots of the experimental vaccine in the past months, being one of the first ones to be administrated to parts of the public like this.
How safe is it?
While the Oxford-AstraZeneca trials have been clouded by safety issues and fears of side-effects, China has confidently said that the vaccines produced in the Asian country are absolutely safe to use.
A scientist and biosafety expert from CDC, Guizhen Wu said that she volunteered to take one of the vaccine shots in April and experienced no 'abnormal' side-effects, without specifying what vaccine candidate she was referring to.
“In the past few months, I have felt very good. There’s been no change. And when I received the vaccine there was no local pain,”
CanSino Biologics's AD5-NCOV is the one Chinese experts have bet high stakes on, claiming that the prototype has up to 99% efficacy rates.
Will the Chinese vaccine be used by other countries?
As we inch closer to having a vaccine ready, leading health experts and epidemiologists have stressed concerns over safety and workability of vaccines currently in the making. While western pharma giants and vaccine groups have offered to put their vaccines up to the highest testing standards, China has reassured experts that its vaccine is safe and follows all standards.
Apart from this, some countries are rumoured to get priority access to Chinese vaccines. South Korean officials are reportedly in talks to secure early access for its 30 million population (which makes up 60% of total people). UAE has also approved urgent use of China developed vaccine after successful testing on 31,000 volunteers.
Strategic partnerships and negotiations are also being done with other partner nations. However, whether or not India is likely to be a part of this deal is unclear yet.