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China has granted its first COVID-19 vaccine patent to the adenovirus vector vaccine developed by Chen Wei of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences and Chinese biotech company CanSino Biologics, according to the National Intellectual Property Administration.
The patent was submitted for application on March 18, and was approved on Aug 11, according to the patent document.
The
vaccine, dubbed "Ad5-nCoV", uses a weakened common cold virus to
introduce genetic material from the novel coronavirus into the human
body. The goal is to train the body to produce antibodies that recognize
the coronavirus’s spike protein and fight it off.
The phase-two
clinical trial of the vaccine has found it is safe and can induce an
immune response, according to research published in the journal Lancet
last month. The phase-three clinical trial, which will include more
participants and be conducted overseas, is currently in the pipeline.
Experts
have called adenovirus vector vaccine a promising technique for its
safety and potency against COVID-19 based on current evidence, as well
as its potential in mass production. The United Kingdom and Russia are
also working on a vaccine candidate using this kind of technology.
However,
many pressing questions regarding the vaccine candidate remain, such as
the longevity of the protection, the appropriate dosage to trigger a
strong immune response, and whether there are host-specific differences.
These questions will be probed in the larger scale phase-three trials.
Another
caveat is that with the vector for the vaccine being a common cold
virus, people may have preexisting immunity that kills the viral carrier
before the vaccine can take effect, which could partially hamper the
immune responses.
Compared with younger people, older
participants generally had significantly lower immune responses, the
Lancet study found. As a result, elderly people might require an
additional dose to induce a stronger immune response, but further
research would be needed to evaluate this approach.
Source: chinadaily.com.cn
Author:Zhang Zhihao
Editor:Vapor