Clinical trials have been conducted in China, Hungary, Pakistan, Malaysia, Argentina and Mexico.
The Chinese city of Shanghai began administering an oral vaccine against the coronavirus, the first of its kind in the world, on Wednesday.
Approved in September, the vaccine is being offered free as a booster dose for those already vaccinated, according to an announcement posted on an official city social media account.
Authorities hope these types of injection-free vaccines can persuade people who don’t like getting vaccinated for fear of injections. Much easier to administer, these vaccines could also increase vaccination rates in poor countries. A vaccine taken by mouth could also repel the virus before it reaches the rest of the respiratory system, although this depends in part on the size of the droplets, an expert said.
In a video posted online by Chinese state media, people are seen in a community health center taking the new vaccine. Everything is done in 20 seconds, the video says.
The vaccine was developed by the Chinese biopharmaceutical company Cansino Biologics Inc. as an aerosol version of the same company’s adenovirus vaccine, which uses a relatively harmless cold virus.
According to the company, clinical trials have been conducted in China, Hungary, Pakistan, Malaysia, Argentina and Mexico.
In India, regulators have approved a nasal vaccine, another sting-free approach, but it has yet to be launched. This vaccine, developed in the United States and licensed to Indian vaccine manufacturer Bharat Biotech, is administered nasally.
According to the World Health Organization, a dozen nasal vaccines are currently being tested around the world.
