Chinese Covid-19 vaccine gets UAE nod for therapeutic use trial

Approval follows earlier green light in the UAE and New Zealand for preventive use trials of YishengBio vaccine

Patients with mild to moderate Covid-19 infections will be targeted first in trial of regimen involving two shots seven days apart

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The YishengBio recombinant vaccine, approved for both preventive and therapeutic use trials by the UAE, involves an independently developed adjuvant. Photo: Handout

Published: 12:00pm, 7 Sep 2021Updated: 2:43pm, 7 Sep 2021

A Chinese Covid-19 vaccine that completes dosage within a week has been cleared for trial in the United Arab Emirates as both a preventive and therapeutic option.

The UAE’s approval for therapeutic use human trials of the vaccine developed by Beijing-based YishengBio came last Thursday, with efficacy studies on mild to moderate Covid-19 infections to be carried out first.

This comes after the UAE health ministry last month also approved phase 1 human trials for preventive use of the vaccine, as did the New Zealand medical regulatory authority.

The human trials will be carried out in partnership with the Pharmaceutical Development Company of UAE and New Zealand Clinical Research.

Recruitment of trial participants in New Zealand was expected to start soon, while applications for clinical trials in more countries were under way, YishengBio CEO David Shao told the South China Morning Post.

He said preclinical studies had showed that the vaccine was capable of inducing rapid and high levels of neutralising antibodies and cellular immunity.