Coronavirus: did diplomatic tensions scuttle China-Canada vaccine trial?

After shipment delays in China, Canadian partner reportedly says the deal with CanSino is over

Beijing says it supports cooperation with other countries but does not give a reason for the hold-up

Reading Time:3 minutes

CanSino is one of the three Chinese pharmaceutical firms with vaccine candidates entering the final phase of clinical trials. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:30pm, 27 Aug 2020Updated: 8:49pm, 25 Nov 2020

Beijing has sought to play down suggestions that poor diplomatic ties with Ottawa scuttled a coronavirus vaccine trial in Canada by Chinese pharmaceutical CanSino Biologics.

Asked on Thursday about the scrapping of the trial after months of delays, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said only that “the Chinese government supports Chinese companies cooperating with other countries according to law”.

He did not elaborate on why the vaccines, which were supposed to be shipped to Canada for a phase one clinical trial, were held up by Chinese customs for weeks.

Canada’s National Research Council (NRC) was quoted by Canadian media as saying on Wednesday that it had ended the cooperation.

The council said that since the signing of the agreement with CanSino in May, China had changed the process of shipping vaccines to other countries.

“The process is not clear to the NRC, but CanSino does not have the authority to ship the vaccine at this time,” the council was quoted as saying.

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