BEIJING (Reuters) – China National Biotec Group (CNBG) and Sinovac Biotech Ltd said Saturday that 4 countries had agreed to conduct complex clinical trials of their coronavirus vaccine candidates, while China intensified its efforts in the global race.
Serbia and Pakistan are among the new countries that have accepted Phase 3 trials, whether corporations seek more knowledge while new instances in China are declining.
Serbia will have two vaccines developed through CNBG sets in Wuhan and Beijing, and Pakistan will be the candidate for the Beijing unit, the company told Reuters.
CNBG Phase 3 tests are expected to involve another 50,000 people in a dozen countries, CNBG Vice President Zhang Yuntao said.Testing has already begun in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Peru, Morocco, Argentina and Jordan.
Zhang said foreign countries had expressed the same as ordering 500 million doses of their combined vaccines.
CNBG will be able to produce three hundred million doses of vaccines consistently with the year once it has improved its production techniques and is implementing a plan to increase its annual capacity to one billion doses, Zhang said.
The CoronaVac vaccine in Sinovac, which is currently being tested in Brazil and Indonesia, also gained two countries’ approval for Phase 3 trials, said Helen Yang, Senior Director of Global Strategy and Business Development at Sinovac.
He refused to call countries because the data is confidential.
While the latest level of trials is still underway to demonstrate that vaccines are effective, China already has legal candidate vaccines from Sinovac and CNBG for emergency use for high-risk equipment such as medical workers.
Tens of thousands of others have already taken CoronaVac as a component of the emergency program, Sinovac Yang said.
CNBG will soon begin offering its vaccines to Chinese workers at embassies and consulates abroad, Zhang said.
(Reporting via Roxanne Liu and Tony Munroe; Editing via Miyoung Kim and Tothrough Chopra)
Subscribe
Sign up for our news blast.