NEW DELHI – If India’s government has its way, the country could launch a vaccine for COVID-19 in mid-August, an extremely short deadline that has caused controversy and pushed companies to speed up their development and the trials of prospective vaccines.
LONDON – There were encouraging results from trials of three COVID-19 vaccines on July 20, with Astrazeneca plc, Biontech SE/Pfizer Inc. and Cansino Biologics Inc. all reporting T-cell responses in ongoing phase I/II studies of their respective products.
CAJICA, Colombia, and BEIJING – Last week Sinovac Biotech Ltd., of Beijing, announced the approval by Anvisa, the Brazilian health care surveillance agency, to start phase III trials to test the efficacy and safety of its inactivated COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Sinovac Life Sciences, a subsidiary of the Chinese company, in the Latin American country.
Research focused on finding viable solutions to counter the COVID-19 pandemic continues at an explosive pace with a total of 588 potential therapeutics and vaccines at the forefront of scientific efforts launched by industry, academia and government.
LONDON – Two months after the launch, the World Health Organization (WHO) has laid out the spending plans for its push to accelerate development and production of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics.
BEIJING – China this week approved both the country’s first mRNA vaccine candidate and its first recombinant protein subunit vaccine to begin clinical trials to fight COVID-19. China National Biotec Group (CNBG)’s vaccine is also entering phase III trials in Beijing, Wuhan and Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Biotech companies with COVID-19 vaccine candidates are collaborating with Indonesian companies for overseas trials and to ensure wider availability when approved. Sinovac Biotech Co. Ltd., for example, is collaborating with Indonesia’s PT Bio Farma to test and manufacture its vaccine candidate there.
BEIJING – Chinese state-backed vaccine developer China National Biotec Group (CNBG), of Beijing, said on June 16 that its inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidate produced a seroconversion rate of up to 100% in a phase I/II trial that enrolled 1,120 healthy subjects.
BEIJING – Nasdaq-listed Chinese vaccine developer Sinovac Biotech Ltd., of Beijing, said the preliminary results of the phase I/II trials of its COVID-19 inactivated vaccine candidate, Coronavac, demonstrated favorable immunogenicity and safety profiles.