BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese vaccine developer CanSino Biologics Inc (CanSinoBIO) said on Monday its potential COVID-19 vaccine using the messenger RNA (mRNA) technology has been approved by China’s medical products regulator to enter clinical trials.
Unlike other major countries, China is yet to approve any foreign-made mRNA vaccines such as that produced by U.S.-German duo Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE.
With around 88% of its 1.4 billion population already vaccinated, China is trailing several domestically developed mRNA vaccine candidates, including one candidate that is being tested in a large, Phase 3 clinical trial.
CanSinoBIO said in a press release that studies before clinical trials had showed the candidate can elicit high-level neutralising antibodies against multiple variants, including Omicron.
CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Limited said on Sunday that its potential mRNA COVID vaccine SYS6006 was cleared by China’s National Medical Products Administration to conduct clinical trials.
(Reporting by Roxanne Liu and Ryan Woo; Editng by Kenneth Maxwell)
