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Tag: COVID-19 Vaccine

  • CNBG president races against time to accelerate development of COVID-19 vaccine

    By Jiang Lin, People’s Daily

    COVID-19 vaccines are the most expected after the pandemic broke out.

    China National Biotec Group (CNBG) under China National Pharmaceutical Group Corporation delivered outstanding anti-pandemic performance. It builtCOVID-19 vaccine production workshops, and the vaccine thatthe group developed has been approved for emergency use by China.

    Apart from that, CNBG has been racing against the virus since the very start of the epidemic. Its research teams developed a COVID-19 test kit in just 48 hours, which was among the first batch of products recommended by China’s National Health Commission (NHC). Besides, the group also collected plasma from some recovered patients to prepare therapeutic products including convalescent plasma and immune globulin.

    Such achievements couldn’t have been made without Yang Xiaoming, chief scientist of the vaccine project under the “863 program”, a national government-funded high-tech development initiative, and president of CNBG.

    After joining a commendation conference for national response to COVID-19 on Sept. 8, Yang immediately started working eating a few mouthfuls of packed lunch. “I’ve already been used to this, as I have been eating packed meals for over nine months,” he said.

    Yang always forgot to have meals or slept very little during work, saying what he did was a race against the virus. Scientists are warriors in the lab, and they need to fight, he told the People’s Daily.

    After the outburst of COVID-19, Yang in no timesent his team to Wuhan and finally confirmed that the virus was a whole-new pathogen.

    “We had too many unknowns facing the new virus, so we had to establish a comprehensive response plan as soon as possible,” said Yang, who has studied infectious diseases for over 20 years. He quickly established a command center with his team to develop test kit. Meanwhile, they also started vaccine development.

    When the team was working for test reagent, Yang would call the R&D personnel almost every hour to see how things were going.

    “It was really urgent. My cell phone was totally a hotline, and I had to charge it at least three to four times a day. I couldn’t miss a single call, so that I could learn the progress and solve problems,” he said.

    The high intensity of work led to a rising blood pressure of Yang, and he had to control it by taking drugs. “The medical workers are battling on the frontline, so we must fight, too,” he said. Finally, the test kit was developed within 48 hours.

    Soon after that, he led his team to the new battlefield – COVID-19 vaccine development.

    During those days, how to make safe vaccines as soon as possible was all he was thinking. After rounds of researches, CNBG decided to take multiple approaches to develop inactivated vaccines.

    “We resorted to multiple approaches because we didn’t know too much about the virus back then, and we chose inactivated vaccines because the techniques and production platforms are mature, so we were able to launch massive production easily,” he explained.

    CNBG decided to start researches of inactivated vaccines at two of its biological product institutions in Beijing and Wuhan simultaneously, which meant it must expand its investment. “Such a ‘back-to-back’ method enabled us to compare the results, so as to ensure the safety and reliability of the vaccines. In addition, the competition between the two institutions also improved our efficiency,” Yang said.

    When the vaccine was just approved for clinical test, Yang became the first one to be injected. After phase-I and phase-II clinical tests, no severe side effect happened among all those injected.

    “Without enough output, vaccines, no matter how great they are, cannot shield people from diseases. Therefore, we must massively produce them,” Yang said. That’s why CNBG has built COVID-19 vaccine production workshops in both Beijing and Wuhan.It took only 60 days to build the workshops. The one in Beijing was completed on April 15, and the one in Wuhan on July 1.

    “We’ll do everything to finish the ‘last mile’ of COVID-19 vaccine development, and build a fence to protect people’s health with concrete actions,” Yang said.

  • Trump says Covid-19 vaccine will be offered free to all Americans

    Trump says Covid-19 vaccine will be offered free to all Americans

    US government will offer Covid-19 vaccine free to all Americans – and they’ll need two shots of it

    Every American will be offered a free coronavirus vaccine from January 2021 – and most people who take up the offer will need two injections of it.

    A report given to the US Congress Wednesday says the vaccination campaign may begin by the end of the year, and is likely to be in full-swing by January.

    Anyone who takes up the offer of a free shot will be given two doses 21 to 28 days apart, with each patient being given both shots from the same vaccine manufacturer.

    Multiple US pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer and Moderna are racing to develop their own shots, with results from ongoing final-phase testing expected as early as October.

    Other manufacturers around the world are developing their own shots, with scientists saying most vaccines tested appear to offer protection from Covid-19.

    The vaccination program has been described as a ‘marathon’ rather than a ‘sprint’, with officials warning it will be a much more complex task than distributing a regular flu vaccine.

    They have warned supplies of the vaccine will initially be limited, with priority given to healthcare and frontline workers, as well as people particularly vulnerable to serious side effects if they were to catch coronavirus. Billions of dollars of taxpayer funds approved by Congress and President Trump’s administration will be used to foot the bill for the mass-vaccination program, although polls show that up to half of Americans say they are wary of getting the shot.

    The race to develop and encourage people to take a vaccine has been heavily politicized, with Donald Trump accused of pushing for a shot to be ready in time for the November 3 presidential election, with polls showing him flagging behind challenger Joe Biden.

    It has also been hijacked by conspiracy theorists, who have pushed outlandish theories that the vaccine is being created as part of a shadowy attempt to control the world’s population.

    Alex Azar, who is head of the US Department for Health and Human Services, sought to allay fears over safety in a statement Wednesday. He said: ‘We are working closely with our state and local public health partners … to ensure that Americans can receive the vaccine as soon as possible and vaccinate with confidence.

    ‘Americans should know that the vaccine development process is being driven completely by science and the data.” If the multiple prototypes currently in late-stage testing succeed, they will be by-far the fastest vaccines ever to have been brought onto the market.

    Scientists think that around 70% of the US population will need to take up the offer of a vaccine in order to kill-off Covid-19 infections. US states and cities have been asked to submit plans on proposed vaccination programs, and how they plan to store the vaccines, which may require refrigeration or freezing. Coronavirus has so-far infected 6.6million Americans, and killed close to 196,000.

  • W.H.O launches plan to fast-track COVID-19 vaccine

    W.H.O launches plan to fast-track COVID-19 vaccine

    World leaders have launched a World Health Organization initiative to speed up the research, development and distribution of vaccines, drugs and tests against the coronavirus.

    WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said the shared commitment is to ensure all people have access to all the tools to defeat Covid-19.

    Speaking via video link at the launch, French President Emmanuel Macron said a vaccine should be “available to everyone around the world” when it is ready.

    Other world leaders echoed that sentiment, describing a vaccine against Covid-19 as a universal public good.

    The US, which recently said he would withdraw American funding from the WHO willl not take part in the initiative.

  • U.K Scientists begin Clinical trials of COVID-19 Vaccine

    U.K Scientists begin Clinical trials of COVID-19 Vaccine

    Scientists in Britain have began clinical trials of a potential COVID-19 vaccine, as other vaccine developers across Europe also stepped up work on experimental shots against the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

    As many as 100 potential COVID-19 candidate vaccines are now under development by biotech and research teams around the world, and at least five of these are in preliminary testing in people in what are known as Phase 1 clinical trials.

    Oxford scientists said last week that large-scale production capacity was being put in place to make millions of doses of the shot, even before trials show whether it is effective.

    The race for a vaccine has been fuelled by the shortage of options for treating the disease.

    The European Union’s drug regulator had warned against using two older malaria drugs outside of trials or national emergency use programmes, citing potentially lethal side effects.