Chinese mRNA booster fights Omicron 4 times better than inactivated Covid-19 vaccines, researchers say
- AWcorna vaccine produced 4.4 times more Omicron antibodies than Sinovac booster, scientists behind clinical trial write in Cell Research journal
- Home-grown mRNA jab could be China’s best bet against the highly transmissible variant, with Pfizer-BioNTech’s version yet to clear regulatory hurdle
The AWcorna vaccine is the latest in a string of Chinese shots seeking to improve public immunity against the highly transmissible strain of the Sars-Cov-2 coronavirus that causes Covid-19, in a country where most residents were inoculated with inactivated doses.
Nearly 90 per cent of China’s population have been fully vaccinated and about 59 per cent have received a booster. But only about 4.8 per cent of the boosted population received a vaccine using a different technology.
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Third Chinese Covid-19 vaccine gets emergency-use approval from WHO
“The effectiveness of AWcorna in preventing infection by Sars-CoV-2 and other variants of concern remains to be determined,” researchers behind the study wrote in peer-reviewed journal Cell Research earlier this week.
“[However] the induction of potent neutralising antibodies against wild type [original strain coronavirus] and variants of concern, as well as the affordable safety profile, support the emergency use of AWcorna as a heterologous booster in China.”