China approves mixed-use Covid-19 vaccine trials to start in autumn
- US firm Inovio’s DNA vaccine to be combined with Sinovac in bid to achieve a stronger immune response
- Sinovac is also reporting an increase in antibody levels after a third booster shot of its vaccine
The trials are set to begin in the autumn in China and will evaluate the safety and ability of the combined vaccines to induce an immune response in adults, Inovio said.
Meanwhile, Sinovac has reported that a study of 300 people aged over 60 showed “a third dose given eight months or more after the second dose significantly increased neutralising antibody levels”.
The research follows concerns raised by health officials in China, including Gao Fu who heads the country’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about the lower efficacy of Chinese-made vaccines.
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Inside a plant in China producing the WHO-approved Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine
In a paper published on the preprint service medRxiv.org on Sunday, the researchers said that while antibody levels “declined substantially” six months after two doses of the Sinovac vaccine among older adults, a third dose could induce a seven-fold increase in antibody levels in a week compared with that of 28 days after the second dose.