Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products’ unit has announced it has been given the green light from China to test its potential COVID-19 vaccine on humans.
The company has revealed it had received a certificate from China’s National Medical Products Administration to launch clinical trials today.
If the trials are successful, the vaccine would then need to receive regulatory approval, before being manufactured and sold.
The potential vaccine, co-developed by Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical and the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has received a certificate from the National Medical Products Administration to launch clinical trials.
Chinese researchers and companies are testing six experimental shots in humans, and more than a dozen vaccines are in different stages of clinical trials globally against the virus that has killed over 470,000 people.
However, none of the them have passed large-scale, late-stage phase 3 clinical trials, a necessary step before entering the consumer market.
To date, more than 8.86 million people have contracted COVID-19, with the number of confirmed deaths sitting at over 465,000.
Currently, the only known treatment, not vaccine, of coronavirus is a cheap steroid called dexamethasone.
The drug has proven to reduce deaths in critically illy patients.
WHO has called for production of dexamethasone to be boosted, while the world waits for a vaccine.
