Sinovac Hong Kong executive says trials for Omicron jab may start this month, global distribution in May

Meng Weining, vice-president of Sinovac (Hong Kong) Biotech, says animal trials show promising results; human trials could start this month

Current development timeline could allow for jabs against Omicron to be ready by May

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Meng Weining, vice-president of Sinovac (Hong Kong) Biotech, said that ongoing animal trials had shown promising results. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 8:59pm, 10 Feb 2022Updated: 9:14pm, 10 Feb 2022

Chinese vaccine maker Sinovac Biotech has revealed that it plans to begin clinical trials for a jab to treat the highly transmissible Omicron variant this month, and hopes to begin global distribution by May.

Meng Weining, vice-president of Sinovac (Hong Kong) Biotech, one of the two manufacturers supplying Covid-19 jabs to the city, said in an interview on Thursday that ongoing animal trials had shown promising results after the firm obtained Omicron samples from the local government and the University of Hong Kong (HKU) last December.

“The Omicron-specific vaccines can stimulate quite strong immune responses and antibody levels in small animals, which is in line with our expectations,” Meng said. “We are still discussing with experts on the final clinical trials, such as dosage and procedures.”

The senior executive also said the current time frame for developing the vaccine could allow for human trial data to be ready by next month, with supplies ready for distribution by May.

Pfizer and BioNTech, another supplier of Covid-19 vaccines to the city, announced on January 25 that they had also begun testing Omicron-specific vaccines on healthy adults, with 1,400 people expected to be enrolled in the trial.

Local pandemic experts, such as professor David Hui Shu-cheong, have said that second-generation vaccines, using genomes from the prevailing variants such as Omicron, could help the city combat the worsening coronavirus outbreak.