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Finding a cure: An engineer conducting tests on an experimental vaccine for Covid-19 at a laboratory in Beijing
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Vaccine development should focus on ensuring safety, effectiveness and accessibility, he added.
To date, four inactivated vaccines and one adenovirus vaccine had been approved for clinical trials, said a white paper titled “Fighting Covid-19: China in Action”, which was released by the State Council Information Office yesterday.
While scientists in China and abroad had kept up with mutual developments, China led the world in the development of certain types of vaccines, the white paper said.
A great deal of international cooperation had been carried out so far in terms of vaccine development, according to Wang.
Highlighting the significant role that vaccines had played in human history, Wang said both Chinese scientists and those in other countries were trying to make contributions to building a global community of health for all.
He, however, noted that the development of vaccines is a rigorous and complex procedure, which faces many uncertainties and may take a long period of time.
Wang also said drug research and development had been a priority in the efforts of fighting the pandemic in China since the very start, with more than 160 research institutes and enterprises taking part in various programmes.
Meanwhile, Ma Xiaowei, minister of the National Health Commission, said at the press conference that China would strengthen the building of public health emergency response system as the Covid-19 pandemic had exposed flaws in the country’s medical and public health system.
The country would improve the investment mechanism on public health system so that it would be in a better situation to handle disease prevention and control, he said.
Different levels of disease prevention and control centres would have a clearer definition of their functions, with the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention making the final decision on scientific research, testing, guidance and pathogenic analysis on epidemic diseases, Ma added.
“Moreover, we will further improve the reporting and warning system of major public health incidents by building public opinion monitoring system, reporting system by medical workers and reporting system on scientific findings,” he said.
There would also be new policies in cultivating more talents in public health and improving their treatment, especially talents in pathogenic detection, epidemiological investigation, laboratory testing and analysis on epidemic situation, he added.
China could have Covid-19 vaccine ‘ready for public use early next year’
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| Three vaccines developed by Chinese companies and researchers are in their second or third phase of trials. - Reuters |
This is the first time a Chinese official has put an estimate on the timescale for development of a coronavirus vaccine, believed to be the key to containing the global pandemic. The US Food and Drug Administration believes a vaccine in the United States could be at least a year away, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that it could take 12 to 18 months..
Gao Fu, head of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, on Thursday told China Global Television Network, the overseas arm of the state broadcaster, that vaccines currently at phase two or three of clinical trials could be available by the time of a potential second wave of outbreaks. Three Chinese vaccines have completed the first phase of trials.
“We are in the frontline for the vaccine development, and we may have a vaccine ready for emergency use by September,” Gao said. “These newly developed vaccines, which are still under phase two or phase three clinical trials, could be used for some special groups of people, for example health care workers.”.
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Gao added that “we may have a vaccine for the healthy population early next year”, but stressed that its feasibility would depend on “progress of our development”..
Unlike influenza – whose frequent mutations must be anticipated by vaccine makers preparing for seasonal outbreaks – Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes the disease Covid-19, is believed not to mutate as often and is unlikely to become a “new norm” such as seasonal flu, according to virologist Shi Yi, of the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences..
“Some experts believe the epidemical new coronavirus will become a norm and spread like the influenza virus... but [we believe] such probability would be relatively low,” Shi told reporters at a regular briefing in Beijing on Thursday. “At present, there is no evidence that the new coronavirus has the same variability as influenza virus.”.
https://youtu.be/8oQM48rToSc
Shi also rejected the possibility of Covid-19 becoming a chronic illness, given that the virus multiplies mainly in patients’ respiratory tracts and no continuous virus carrying has been observed. He added that the same was true of the century’s two other known coronavirus-induced diseases, severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers)..
As the coronavirus has swept the globe and infected more than 2.7 million people, causing nearly 200,000 deaths, scientists have raced to develop a vaccine to combat the pandemic. By Thursday, six candidates had entered into clinical trials and 77 others were in preclinical studies, according to the WHO..
https://youtu.be/vfL7DzdNl54
Newly added to the group being trialled was a viral vector vaccine developed by a team of researchers from the University of Oxford, which was injected into its first two volunteers on Thursday and was based on a technology used to develop a vaccine for Mers..
The team’s leader, Dr Sarah Gilbert, reportedly expressed hope that 1 million doses would be ready for use by September.
Trump adviser claims China may be keeping data to win virus vaccine race
US biotech start-up Moderna started the world’s first coronavirus clinical trial in March, on its mRNA vaccine. Another US company, Inovio Pharmaceuticals, kicked off its first human trial of a DNA vaccine last month..
Three vaccines developed by Chinese companies and researchers have passed their first phase of trials for safety and earlier this month started the second phase, involving hundreds to more than 1,000 volunteers testing their effectiveness and researchers assessing vaccination doses..
https://youtu.be/UEzZ6sZegso
The trio included the Adenovirus-vector vaccine, by Tianjin-based Cansino Biological I and Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, and two inactivated vaccines developed by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products and Sinovac Research & Development in Beijing..
China has experienced an easing of the Covid-19 epidemic after nearly five months of the outbreak, which was first reported in the central city of Wuhan. It reported only four locally transmitted and two imported cases on Thursday, while the number of patients still under treatment has fallen to below 1,700..
Existing drugs ‘may prove effective on coronavirus before vaccine comes’
But vaccines under development will require an effective patient population for the third phase of trials, to allow their effectiveness to be tested in an environment where the virus is still prevalent..Researchers must overcome difficulties such as “vaccine enhancement”, in which a disease is exacerbated in a vaccinated person infected with the actual virus..
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