China is beginning scientific trials with an inhalable Covid vaccine

China’s CanSino Biologics will begin clinical trials next week for a Covid-19 vaccine administered by inhalation, the company’s co-founder and chief executive officer Xuefeng Yu told CNBC on Sunday.

The effectiveness rates for China’s Covid vaccines have been found to be lower than those developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Earlier this month, the director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control publicly admitted that Chinese vaccines “don’t have very high protection rates” and that they are considering giving people various Covid shots to make the vaccine more effective.

Yu told CNBC that an inhaled vaccine could be more effective than the injected one because the coronavirus enters the human body through the respiratory tract.

CanSinoBIO is developing the inhalation vaccine together with the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology. The company’s injected adenovirus type 5 vector vaccine – or Ad5-nCoV – has already been approved for use in China and several other countries.

Speaking to CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal at the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan Province, China, Yu explained that an inhaled vaccine could theoretically provide additional protection by producing antibodies or T cells – white blood cells that are vital to the immune system. activates airways in the EU.

People who received Covid-19 shots at a temporary vaccination site in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China, on April 15, 2021.

Liu Ranyang | China News Service | Getty Images

If that protective layer fails and the virus penetrates deeper into the body, other parts of the immune system could keep fighting the Covid virus, Yu added.

“So you add more layers – makes sense, doesn’t it? That’s why we’re going the mucosal path,” he said.

The CEO said the company used the same concept to develop an inhalation vaccine for tuberculosis, or TB. Studies conducted in Canada showed that the inhaled dose for the TB vaccine needed to protect it “is much, much less than the actual injection,” he said.

Increase the effectiveness of the vaccine

CanSinoBIO’s single-dose injected Covid vaccine has been approved for use in several countries including China, Pakistan, Mexico and Hungary.

The company said preliminary data from third-phase clinical trials overseas showed its vaccine was 68.83% effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 disease two weeks after an injection, while the rate after four weeks Fell 65.28%, Reuters reported.

By comparison, updated data showed the Pfizer BioNTech shot was 91% effective at preventing infection, while Moderna said its vaccine was more than 90% effective six months after the second shot.

According to Yu, CanSinoBIO investigated adding a booster shot six months after the first injection, which could improve the immune response to the coronavirus.

“This also suggests that our vaccine could be improved – whether mixed with others or made by ourselves, I think that really requires a scientific study. We actually need data to show which way could be better,” said the CEO.

Reuters reported Monday that Chinese researchers are testing blending Covid vaccines developed by CanSinoBIO and a unit of Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products. The process, which is ongoing in the eastern city of Nanjing, is expected to involve 120 participants, the report said.

China was the first country to report cases of Covid-19 in late 2019 and appears to have largely contained the outbreak. The country has announced that it will vaccinate 40% of its population by June.