China has reportedly approved the clinical trials of the nasal spray vaccine against COVID-19.
Reports suggest that phase 1 of the clinical trial of nasal spray will be conducted in November and the officials have recruited 100 volunteers for the test.
The nasal spray vaccine is the first to be approved by the National Medical Products Administration of China.
The vaccine is a joint mission between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland including researchers from the University of Hong Kong, Xiamen University and the Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy.
Yuen Kwok-Yung, Microbiologist from the University of Hong Kong said, “The nasal spray vaccination could generate double protection for vaccine recipients – influenza and the novel coronavirus – if it also contains influenza viruses including H1N1, H3N2 and B”. And also he added that the three clinical trials will take at least a year to complete.
“The vaccine stimulates the natural infection of respiratory viruses to activate the immune response”, said Yuen on the working of the vaccine.
The Ministry of Science and Technology has selected the vaccine strategy as one of the five vaccine technologies for further evaluation, said the Hong Kong University in a statement.
The nasal spray vaccine uses live attenuated influenza vaccine; the other four technologies China uses to develop coronavirus vaccines are inactivated vaccines, adenoviral vector-based vaccines, DNA and mRNA vaccines. The inactivated vaccine is considered to be the earliest of its kind on the market.
However, it is not yet clear whether immunity from nasal spray vaccines will last longer than other injected vaccines.
China has so far approved clinical trials of three COVID-19 vaccine candidates. It also approves the immediate use of COVID -19 vaccines developed by selected domestic companies.
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