China conducting clinical trials on Covid-19 nasal spray vaccines

China has set a target for 40% of the population to be fully vaccinated by the end of June and 70% of ‘target groups’ by the end of 2021.

China is conducting clinical trials on an inhaled Covid-19 vaccine, the second such one undergoing testing in the country, official media reports said this week.

Covid-19 vaccines are produced at a factory of Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac in Beijing. (AP)

The inhaled Covid-19 vaccine is being jointly-developed by researchers from the Institute of Military Medicine under the Academy of Military Sciences, affiliated to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and China’s CanSino Biologics, Xinhua reported.

After collecting clinical (or human)-trial data, experts will study the safety and effectiveness of the inhaled vaccine, a modified version of an injectable adenovirus vector Covid-19 jab, which is already available in the market, Shao Yiming, a researcher at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

A second nasal-spray Covid-19 vaccine, developed by Xiamen University, the University of Hong Kong and Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy, has completed phase-1 and phase-2 trials in China.

Researchers of that vaccine are applying for phase-3 clinical trials overseas to further evaluate the efficacy, according to Shao.

Chinese companies have conducted clinical trials of vaccines in several countries including in the UAE and Pakistan.

Domestic vaccination rates have shot up in recent weeks.

Over 845.2 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines had been administered across China as of Thursday, the national health commission (NHC) said in an update on Friday.

Also on Friday, a health official with the NHC said a total of 622 million people in China had been vaccinated in China by Thursday. However, it wasn’t clear how many people in China had been fully vaccinated against the infection.

In China’s Covid-19 vaccination programmes, out of seven shots, five require two doses, one requires a single dose, and one needs three injections.

A Covid-19 vaccine from a Sinopharm unit, Beijing Institute of Biological Products, has also obtained approval to be used on people aged between three and 17 in China, CDC’s Shao said.

In China, 21 Covid-19 vaccines are undergoing clinical trials at various stages, Zeng Yixin, NHC deputy director said earlier this month.

By the end of 2021, China is expected to vaccinate at least 70% of “target groups”, Zeng said.

China has set a target for 40% of the population to be fully vaccinated by the end of June.