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BEIJING, April 16, 2020 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

According to the latest news from Science and Technology Daily (April 14th),

two COVID-19 inactivated vaccines were just approved for a phase I & II

combined clinical trial by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA)

of China, making them the first batch in this category. The two vaccines were

developed respectively by Wuhan Institute of Biological Products Co., Ltd of

Sinopharm and Sinovac Research & Development Co., Ltd together with research

institutes.

This is another piece of good news since the team of Chen Wei, academician at

China Academy of Engineering and researcher at Academy of Military Medical

Sciences, managed to get clinical trial approval for the recombinant COVID-19

vaccine they developed on March 17th.

"We are taking the lead in developing COVID-19 vaccines in a global

perspective," said with pride by Wang Junzhi, academician at China Academy of

Engineering. Then he proposed four factors for this achievement: early start,

accurate direction, being science-based and collaboration from all parts.

Vaccine is not a distant solution for a current emergency, but rather the most

powerful weapon to defeat COVID-19.

China made the decision to accelerate the pace based on rational judgement and

organization with the premise of safety assurance. As early on January 21st,

the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) announced the establishment of an

expert group of joint epidemic prevention and control against COVID-19. The

expert group was led by Zhong Nanshan, academician at China Academy of

Engineering, and consisted of 14 experts. On 22nd, the first eight emergency

programs of Scientific Response to COVID-19 were initiated swiftly.

The expert group had decided on five directions for vaccine development:

inactivated vaccines, genetic engineering subunit vaccines, adenovirus vector

vaccines, nucleic acid vaccines, and vaccines using attenuated influenza virus

as vectors. All five directions were to be followed at the same time. Eight

teams of advantage in vaccine development were singled out to collaborate on

this mission with a detailed plan of work nodes accurate to the day.

Thanks to Chen Wei's accurate judgement and accumulation of knowledge and

experience in vaccine development, her team was the first to reach breakthrough

achievements. In early February, she suggested that COVID-19 remains a

coronavirus despite its possible variation. Therefore, mutual target antigen,

pathogenesis and receptor could be identified quickly with the help of

bioinfomatics and big data mining once the variation appears. And the vaccine

development can be improved swiftly accordingly.

Since the start of the program, Chen Wei's team has conducted research on

recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (adenovirus vector vaccine) based on the

successful experience in Ebola vaccine development with great speed. On March

17th, the team's recombinant COVID-19 vaccine was approved for clinical trial,

which took place one month in advance than expected. By April 2nd, all 108

subjects of phase I clinical trial in Wuhan had been inoculated. On 9th, phase

II clinical trial, which has a larger scale and introduces placebo control

groups, started recruitment for volunteers.

Meanwhile, all other directions have also made progress.

Lei Chaozi, head of Department of Science and Technology of the Ministry of

Education, introduced the current achievements: research on the safety and

validity of experimental animal for attenuated influenza vector vaccine is

ongoing and pre clinical trial research for vaccine candidates and application

for clinical trial are expected by the end of April; animal experiments on mice

and rabbits regarding recombinant protein vaccine are being conducted and the

technology of large-scale production of vaccine with high quality and purity

has been mastered; nucleic acid vaccine development is a new technology being

explored by the whole world, but no such vaccine has entered the market yet.

At the same time, Wang Junzhi specifically emphasized the safety issue of the

vaccine: "On the one hand, Chinese scientists seek to make full use of time

with great effort. On the other hand, they conduct research under scientific

laws and ensure the safety and validity of the vaccine. All research and

development activities are in accordance with corresponding regulations and

technological requirements."

SOURCE: Science and Technology Daily