China has on Tuesday approved early-stage human tests for two experimental coronavirus vaccines.
The experimental vaccines are being developed by a Beijing-based unit of Sinovac Biotech and by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, an affiliate of state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group, state news agency Xinhua reports.
China’s National Health Commission also confirmed the human trials will go ahead.
In March, Beijing gave the green light to another clinical trial for a coronavirus vaccine candidate developed by the military-backed Academy of Military Medical Sciences and biotech firm CanSino Bio.
This is shortly after US drug developer Moderna said it had begun human tests for their vaccine with the US National Institutes of Health.
Three particular vaccines are being tested in China, and the National Health Commission has said it will have to clear a number of conditions before they enable mass production of the vaccines globally, Al Jazeera reports.
In the same vein, many scientists around the world are racing against time to develop a vaccine for coronavirus, which has killed more than 119,000 people and infected more than 1.9 million globally.
The first approved vaccine in China has started its second phase of the trial, Aljazeera reports.
A total of 500 people signed up to volunteer for the first phase trial, which looked at the safety of this vaccine, and the second phase has now introduced a placebo control group.
But even as hope for a cure is raised, John Nicholls, clinical professor of Pathology at the University of Hong Kong, said: “Vaccines can’t be rushed”.
His team was one of the first outside mainland China to reproduce the virus in a laboratory for research.
Nicholls told Al Jazeera that;
Normally with vaccines you start off with small animals and then move to primates and then to the humans. It seems that with this one they have gone straight to the humans, which is a very bold decision.
He added that;
Most of the mortality in this disease is in the elderly, so the best thing would be to actually see what the anti-body response is in the elderly rather than the young.
As of Wednesday, China has reported 882,295 coronavirus cases and 3,342 deaths.
