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CHINA-VIRUS-VACCINE
Preliminary results show Chinese COVID-19 vaccine candidate safe: The
Lancet
LONDON, Oct 17, 2020 (BSS/XINHUA) – A Chinese COVID-19 vaccine candidate
based on the inactivated whole SARS-CoV-2 virus is safe and elicits an
antibody response, according to the findings from a small early-phase
randomised clinical trial published Thursday in The Lancet Infectious
Diseases journal.
The latest study included participants aged between 18 and 80 years, and
found that antibody responses were induced in all recipients. Participants
aged 60 and older were slower to respond, taking 42 days before antibodies
were detected in all recipients compared with 28 days for participants aged
18-59.
The trial was not designed to assess efficacy of the vaccine, so it is not
possible to say whether the antibody responses induced by the vaccine, called
BBIBP-CorV, are sufficient to protect people from SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The authors also noted that interpretation of the results of this study is
limited by the short duration of follow-up.
According to The Lancet, there are currently 42 vaccines for COVID-19 in
clinical trials. Vaccine candidates in clinical trials vary in type and
include DNA plasmid vaccines, inactivated virus vaccines, adenovirus-vectored
vaccines, RNA vaccines, protein subunit vaccines and virus-like particle
vaccines. Some of these have already proved safe and able to elicit immune
responses in early phase clinical trials.
“Our findings indicate that a booster shot is necessary to achieve the
greatest antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 and could be important for
protection. This provides useful information for a phase 3 trial,” said Yang
Xiaoming, one of the authors of the study and a professor from the Beijing
Institute of Biological Products.
BSS/XINHUA/SSS/1022 hrs