National Medical Products Administration, China’s apex drug regulatory body, has granted approval for the emergency use of an inhaled Coronavirus vaccine.
The inhaled vaccine has been developed by CanSino Biologics, a Chinese vaccine manufacturer. It is based on the company’s single-dose adenovirus-vectored COVID-19 vaccine, which has been used by a number of countries including Pakistan.
According to the official statement from CanSinoBIO, the inhaled version of Cansino’s adenovirus-vectored COVID-19 vaccine has obtained the green light from the National Medical Products Administration.
However, the company did not mention any time frame for the introduction of the inhaled vaccine in domestic and international markets. It is because several regulatory approvals are still required. Moreover, sales will be determined by the Coronavirus situation in China as well as across the globe.
Also known as Ad5-nCoV, CanSinoBIO developed the original vaccine in collaboration with the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology and tested it in large-scale phase-III clinical trials that were held in five countries, including Pakistan, in which more than 40,000 volunteers participated. No serious safety concerns and side effects of the CanSinoBIO vaccine were reported during the multination clinical trials.
Results of trials confirmed that the CanSinoBIO vaccine is 65% effective at preventing symptomatic cases and 91% effective at preventing severe infection. As for the Pakistani subset, the vaccine offers 75% protection against symptomatic cases and 100% protection against severe infection.
