Three Chinese specific vaccines for omicron to start trials in Hong Kong

Bloomberg — Three Chinese inactivated vaccines against the omicron variant of Covid-19 have gained approval to start clinical trials in Hong Kong, according to their developers.

China National Biotec Group Company Ltd., a vaccine development subsidiary of state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group Co. also known as Sinopharm, announced the news on its WeChat account on Saturday. The trials will look at the safety of the inoculations and their ability to stimulate an immune response in adults who have received two or three doses.

The vaccines were jointly developed by China National Biotec and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products Co.

Besides, an inactivated vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech Ltd. against the highly contagious variant has also been given the green light for trial in the city, according to a company statement. The company began soliciting various countries and regions for trials of the vaccine in February, and the Hong Kong government is the first to give the go-ahead, he added.

Sinopharm said in a recent statement that its second-generation recombinant protein vaccines against Covid-19 had received approval from Beijing to conduct clinical trials.. The improved version has already been accepted by the United Arab Emirates as a booster vaccine and improves the immune response to the coronavirus, according to reports. Bloomberg News earlier this month.

China is currently dealing with its worst Covid outbreak since the early days of the pandemic. The number of infections in the world’s second-largest economy reached 24,680 on Friday, with the financial hub of Shanghai reporting more than 23,500 new cases.

–