Clinical trials for China’s vaccine against Omicron variants are expected to conclude in three to four months and will be gradually put into use, according to the vaccine developer Wednesday.
Preclinical research showed the vaccine has good neutralizing activity against Omicron variants, said Zhang Yuntao, chief scientist and vice president of vaccine developer China National Biotec Group (CNBG), affiliated with Sinopharm, during an online press conference.
Animal experiments have also shown that the vaccine offers some protection against Omicron infections, he said, noting that the protective effect of the vaccine needs to be observed further in clinical trials.
The vaccine was approved for clinical trials by the National Medical Products Administration on Tuesday.
During the clinical trials, a randomized, double-blind and cohort study method will be adopted among people aged 18 and above who have already received two or three doses of COVID-19 vaccines to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of the inactivated vaccine.
With the successful development of the vaccine against Omicron variants, CNBG will coordinate its main production capacity and equipment to manufacture the new vaccine, said Yang Huichuan, chief scientist and vice president of CNBG.
About 215 million people aged 60 and above, or 81.44% of the age group, have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 on the Chinese mainland, a health official said Thursday.
Nearly 160 million of them also got a booster shot, said Wu Liangyou, deputy head of the disease control and prevention division of the National Health Commission (NHC), at a press conference, noting that the vaccination speed for the age group is accelerating.