Can China’s home-grown mRNA Covid-19 vaccine pass its final tests?
- No serious adverse effects recorded in phase 1 clinical trials but scientists say everything hinges on large-scale study
- China has so far relied on vaccines developed through traditional technology which are less effective against Omicron and Delta
No serious adverse events were recorded in the phase 1 clinical trial data, published last week by The Lancet Microbe, but scientists said it was too early to judge its success.
Large-scale trials of the vaccine – jointly developed by the Academy of Military Science, Walvax Biotechnology and Suzhou Abogen Biosciences – have been delayed since last year. No reason was given by the company, though it has become generally more difficult to recruit unvaccinated volunteers for phase 3 trials.
Last week a company official said most volunteers had now been recruited, though he refused to give a timeline for the phase 3 trials.
According to online database clinicaltrials.gov, the trials will involve 28,000 participants in Mexico and Indonesia, who will be given ARCoV in two 15 microgram doses, 28 days apart.
So far, China has relied on inactivated vaccines – which use traditional technology but are less effective against the Omicron and Delta variants – to protect its population against the virus.