Suara.com – China again making inroads in research the Covid-19 vaccine, using insect cells. This research aims to make vaccine on a large scale at a lower cost.
Reported by ANTARA, China approved a human clinical trial of a vaccine candidate COVID-19 which is cultivated in insect cells, said the Chengdu City government, Saturday (22/8) local time.
China is taking part in the global race to develop a cost-effective vaccine to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic.
The use of insect cells to make the COVID-19 vaccine protein, a first in China, could increase large-scale production, the Chengdu Government notices on social media WeChat said.
The vaccine, developed by the West China Hospital at Sichuan University in Chengdu, bagged the National Medicines Products Agency for clinical trials, the city government wrote.
When tested on monkeys, the vaccine was shown to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection without any obvious side effects, the city government said.
Chinese scientists have led the development of at least eight other COVID-19 vaccine candidates, which are entering different stages of clinical trials.
Foreign players, including Germany’s BioNTech and US Inovio Pharma, are also coordinating with local companies to test their experimental vaccines in China.
Sinopharm Vaccine Ready for Sale
One of the Covid-19 vaccine candidates developed by the Chinese pharmaceutical company, Sinopharm, is likely to be available on the market by the end of December.
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