Chinese vaccine 'tested safely on hundreds of thousands of volunteers', developer claims
Hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizens have been given two experimental coronavirus vaccines without a single case of infection or report of adverse side-effects, an official at a state-owned vaccine company has claimed.
Zhou Song from China National Biotec Group (CNBG) told China National Radio hundreds of thousands of people had been given one of the firm’s two vaccine candidates, currently in phase three clinical trials, “and no one has shown any obvious adverse effects or got infected”.
The news came as it emerged that trials on the UK’s vaccine candidate, one of the global front runners in the race to develop an effective jab, have been suspended after a study participant had an adverse reaction.
China began administering vaccines to volunteers in August, in particular focusing on business travellers visiting countries with high transmission rates, such as Brazil.
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One international traveller reportedly paid more than £100 for two shots of the vaccine. Four of eight possible candidates in late-stage human trials are being developed in China and three have been approved for emergency civilian use.
Another Chinese vaccine has also been given to the military.
Dr Zhou said that the vaccine could protect an individual for up to three years. “Based on the result of animal experiments, phased research results and similar vaccines using similar technology it is without question that immunity can last from one to three years,” he said.
“We have kept monitoring the first 180 volunteers, who received the vaccines more than five months ago, and found the levels of the antibodies for the coronavirus are still stabilising at the peak and there is no sign of them dropping,” he said.
He added that the vaccine should be able to work against all strains for the virus. Covid-19’s “main gene sequence and protein level has not fundamentally changed” and the vaccine “will have no problem in dealing with these mutated viruses in the next few years and can cover them”.
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