China confirms its first Covid-19 vaccine patent

National Intellectual Property Administration has granted the China’s first patent for a COVID-19 vaccine.

The patent was jointly applied for by a research team with the Academy of Military Sciences and CanSino Biologics Inc., a Chinese high-tech biopharmaceutical company, said a report in People’s Daily.

The team led by Chen Wei, a researcher at the Institute of Military Medicine under the academy, developed the recombinant COVID-19 vaccine, with the modified defective adenovirus as the vector, reports Xinhua.

In March, the vaccine became the first in China to be approved to enter clinical trials.

According to the patent abstract, the vaccine shows good immunogenicity in both mouse and guinea pig models and can induce strong cellular and humoral immune response in a short period of time.

It can be produced quickly on a large scale to cope with a COVID-19 outbreak.

The vaccine has now finished phase-1 and phase-2 clinical trials, which have verified its safety and immunogenicity, said the report.

Besides, Russia has begun production of the first batch of vaccines against COVID-19, its health ministry said in a statement released Saturday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday announced the world’s first registered vaccine against the novel coronavirus, Sputnik V, which is named after the space satellite launched by Moscow in 1957, reports Xinhua.

The vaccine was created by the Gamaleya Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, a medical institute located near Moscow.

Russia will offer the vaccine to other countries once its own citizens are vaccinated, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Wednesday, adding that doubts over the effectiveness of the vaccine are unfounded.

source: UNB