The newly developed Covid vaccine by China’s CanSino Biologics Inc has been given the green light by the nation’s drug regulating authority to be used as a booster in emergency cases.
In a filing on Sunday, CanSino stated that their inhaled form of Covid vaccine has been granted emergency use approval from National Medical Products Administration. “The approval will have a positive impact on the company’s performance if the vaccine is subsequently purchased and used by relevant government agencies,” CanSino said.
CanSino also acknowledged the tough competition it will face from competitors’ vaccines in the country that have gotten approvals by the government or vaccines that are in late-stage trials.
Prior to this approval, China had granted approval to Livzon Pharma Group’s Covid vaccine to be used as a booster in case of emergencies. Only two new products have been approved in the country for the aforementioned disease in over a year.
CanSino expressed uncertainty over when the new vaccine will be available in the market as more administrative approvals are required. The sales of the product would depend on the situation of the virus in the country as well as abroad. The vaccination rate in China will also play a role in the sales of the new vaccine.
China is facing another wave of the virus and a weekend lockdown was enforced by the southern tech center of Shenzhen in a lot of areas of the city. Chengdu imposed a lockdown on its 21M people population on Thursday.
The Shenzhen lockdown was enforced a couple of days after the authorities in the city claimed that the rumors about a lockdown were due to a misinterpretation of the new Covid-19 control measures.
One of the measures to counter the new wave of the virus was that the majority of the population of Shenzhen city, residing in six districts, were to be tested twice on the weekend to minimize the effect on residents’ working life, according to a government statement via official WeChat account.
The localities in the six major districts are categorized as high-risk areas and will be locked down for a week with possible extension depending on the discovery of more positive cases.
A Shenzhen public health official, Lin Hancheng stated that the residents of the city should consider it crucial to remain indoors.
A single person from every house will be allowed to purchase medical supplies, food, and other necessities during the weekend lockdown.
87 new Covid-19 infections were reported in Shenzhen on Friday, the same number that was reported on Thursday. Seven cases of the 87 were reported in areas outside the quarantine zone.
Many companies are seeking to develop inhaled versions of Covid-19 vaccine which triggers antibodies in the airway and nasal tissues to fight the virus. These can be self-administered and used without needles, which automatically increases their appeal to people who are generally hesitant to use the usual vaccines.
According to CanSino, their new inhalable vaccine Ad5-nCoV is a new version of their one-shot Covid drug that went to human testing back in March 2020 after Covid erupted. Since its availability in February of 2021, it has been in use in multiple countries like Hungary, Pakistan, Mexico, Malaysia, and China.
