COVID-19 Vaccine Update from a China-Based Biotech Company is Promising

Whole world is in desperate need of the COVID-19 vaccine/antidote and this seems evident especially in this situation where the number of confirmed cases hits 14,348,858 with 603,691 death globally (3:37 PM CEST, 20 July 2020). Global market is down and many eminent economists forecast a probable upcoming global economic crisis if it continues for some more months.

We have a list of promising COVID-19 vaccine results from different research and biotechnical institutions, though many more are undergoing globally, some major are;

And now we have one more promising vaccine research added from a China-based biopharmaceutical company called Sinovac Biotech Ltd.

The vaccine candidate of Sinovac, named CoronaVac, is almost in its final stage (phase III) of clinical trials and the results from its phase I and II showed favourable immunogenicity and safety profiles. CoronaVac is an inactivated vaccine candidate against COVID-19 of Sinovac. Recently on June 11, 2020, Sinovac and Instituto Butantan, a leading Brazilian producer of immunobiologic products signed a clinical development collaboration agreement in order to advance the clinical trials of CoronaVac.

For the phase, I and II clinical trials of Coronavac, a total of 743 healthy volunteers, aged between 18 to 59 years old were enrolled who were regulated through randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled studies. Of the 743 volunteers, 143 volunteers were studied in phase I and 600 volunteers in phase II.

Publishing the results from the phase I and II of their COVID-19 vaccine candidate, researchers said that the clinical trials of CoronaVac didn’t show any severe adverse event.

“The phase 2 clinical trial approval is a demonstration that the Sinovac and Butantan partnership is an efficient collaboration to move forward offering hope to save lives worldwide,” said Dr. Dimas Covas, Director of Instituto Butantan which had already agreed to work together for the phase III study.

Particularly, results from the phase II clinical trial showed that the vaccine induces neutralizing antibodies 14 days after the vaccination with a 0 to 14-day schedule. They claimed that the neutralizing antibody seroconversion rate is above 90%, which concludes the vaccine candidate can induce a positive immune response on the COVID-19 patient.

Mr. Weidong Yin, Chairman, President, and CEO of Sinovac, commented, “Our phase I/II study shows CoronaVac is safe and can induce an immune response. Concluding our phase I/II clinical studies with these encouraging results is another significant milestone we have achieved in the fight against COVID-19. We have started to invest in building a manufacturing facility so that we can maximize the number of doses available to protect people from COVID-19. Like with our other vaccines, we are committed to developing CoronaVac for global use as part of our mission of supplying vaccines to eliminate human diseases.”

Sinovac has already produced different pandemic vaccines. Sinovac’s product portfolio includes vaccines against hepatitis A and B, seasonal influenza, H5N1 pandemic influenza (avian flu), H1N1 influenza (swine flu), mumps, and canine rabies. Lately, in 2009, Sinovac was the first company worldwide to receive approval for its H1N1 influenza vaccine, which it has supplied to the Chinese Government’s vaccination campaign and stockpiling program.

Indeed further verification and success rate is required so the company expects to submit a phase II clinical study report and a phase III clinical study protocol to China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) in the near future and commence application of phase III clinical trials outside of China.