Coronavirus: China’s first mRNA vaccine ready for final stage trials overseas
- The vaccine ARCoV uses the same revolutionary technique as the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna products, and early trials suggest it may prove just as effective
- Work on a production facility in Yunnan province started last year and developers hope to produce over a hundred million doses a year
China’s first domestically developed mRNA vaccine is ready to start its final stage trials overseas next month, its developer has told state media.
The vaccine – which uses the same advanced revolutionary techniques as the drugs developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna – is at the end of phase 2 human trials and will start large-scale phase 3 trials next month, Ying Bo, founder and chief executive of Suzhou Abogen Biosciences, told China National Radio.
The vaccine, known as ARCoV, has been jointly developed by Abogen, the Academy of Military Science and Walvax Biotechnology.
It works by introducing engineered messenger RNA that instructs cells to produce proteins that help the immune system recognise the virus.
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Trials show the two mRNA vaccines already in use offer more than 94 per cent protection and Ying said early stage trials showed the ARCoV vaccine might just be as promising.