Chinese Company Sinovac Soon To Enter Phase III Trial After Coronavirus Vaccine

By FnF Correspondent | PUBLISHED: 15, Jun 2020, 15:48 pm IST | UPDATED: 15, Jun 2020, 15:48 pm IST

Delhi: Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech has reported that the vaccine being developed by the company CoronaVac has shown positive results. The vaccine candidate which is among the frontrunners for coronavirus vaccine being developed around the world uses an inactivated version of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Usually, a vaccine goes through three stages of the trial, and at each step, the cohort number is increased to check its efficacy. In Phase 1 only small groups of healthy individuals receive the trial vaccine and in Phase 2 the group is expanded and people from different age groups such as the elderly are added.

CoronaVac entered phase I/II clinical trials in April and a randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled study was conducted with a total of 743 healthy volunteers aged from 18 to 59. According to a statement by the company, ‘143 volunteers are in phase I, and 600 volunteers are in phase II. There have been no severe adverse events reported in either the phase I or phase II trials.’

The company also stated that the phase II clinical trial results show that the vaccine is able to produce neutralizing antibodies 14 days after the vaccination and that 90 percent of the participants showed the presence of antibodies.

‘The neutralizing antibody seroconversion rate is above 90%, which concludes the vaccine candidate can induce a positive immune response,’ the company said in a statement about the results of the trial.

Sinovac has also partnered with Instituto Butantan in Brazil to conduct phase 3 in which the vaccine candidate is tested on a large group usually over the age of 18.

“Our phase I/II study shows CoronaVac is safe and can induce an immune response. We have started to invest in building a manufacturing facility so that we can maximize the number of doses available to protect people from COVID-19. Like with our other vaccines, we are committed to developing CoronaVac for global use as part of our mission of supplying vaccines to eliminate human diseases,” said Weidong Yin, Chairman, President and CEO of Sinovac in a statement.

There are several research institutes and pharmaceutical companies that are rushing to develop the vaccine. One of the earliest vaccines to enter phases II and III of the trails is the Oxford University vaccine ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 which is a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus). The vaccine has now entered the second and third phase of testing. Similarly, the vaccine being developed by the US-based Biotech company Moderna will soon enter Phase 3 of clinical trials.