Coronavirus was first reported in China in Wuhan city. It came with several pneumonia cases. The virus has quickly become a global pandemic claiming thousands of lives and millions of infections. As many companies and nations dive into the race of developing COVID-19 vaccines, Germany’s BioNTech SE – ADR (NASDAQ:BNTX) and China’s Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical have agreed a collaboration.
The two will be carrying out a clinical trial of a Covid-19 vaccine candidate in China. The study will enroll a total of 144 participants, and 72 of them have already received a dose of BNT162b1. The companies say this first dosage is a test drive of the vaccine’s reliability and immunity effect. All the subjects will then receive two doses of 10 or 30 micrograms or placebo spaced by 21 days.
The Mystery of Clinical Trials of a Covid-19 Vaccine Candidate in China
Given that the coronavirus was first detected in China, it may sound obvious that the country should have been the first one to think about a vaccine. Surprisingly, this was not the case. Instead, many other countries took up the first trials, and China joined other countries waiting for a vaccine.
However, the country has now taken the jump, thanks to the Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical. On the other hand, Germany’s BioNTech will be among the first international companies to carry out a trial in China. Speaking about the same, the company’s CEO, Ugur Sahin, said, “We are proud to…initiate a clinical trial of a Covid-19 vaccine candidate in China as part of our effort to make our vaccine available globally if approved”.
Secure Authorization to Market the Vaccine
There is yet an approved vaccine for COVID-19, even though there are hundreds of them under trial. The scariest thing is that the virus has spread to at least 188 countries and regions, and it is not known how long it will take to have an approval of at least one vaccine.
Nonetheless, with all these clinical trials underway and most of them recording promising results, there would very likely be an authorization for at least one.
