Coronavirus vaccine latest: China offers Russia to carry out joint COVID19 vaccine trials, says report

Coronavirus vaccine update, COVID19 vaccine Russia: Russian President Vladimir Putin with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. (Reuters image)

Coronavirus COVID19 vaccine update, tracker: In a major development pertaining to the human trials of the experimental Coronavirus vaccine, China has now offered Russia to carry out joint vaccine trials. China’s proposal comes at a time when a lot of questions and apprehensions have been raised over Russia’s “world’s first coronavirus vaccine.” The move by Chinese scientists can be seen as a “vote of confidence” after countries such as the US, Germany, Canada have raised doubts over the efficacy of the Russian vaccine, as per a report in South China Morning Post.’

Top respiratory diseases expert in China’s Zhong Nanshan has announced the joint vaccine trials plan during a symposium with Russian scientists. However, there were no clarifications over the type of experimental vaccine and the trial sites. Both Russia and China can learn a lot from each other, he said. Russia has adopted technologies and strategies to fight the highly contagious disease and these are worth studying, and on the other side, China has adopted unique ways to control the pandemic through the use of traditional Chinese medicine, Nanshan was quoted as saying by South China Morning Post.

As many as four Chinese experimental vaccines are among the eight potential vaccines which are in the third and final stage of the clinical or human trials. Human trials for Chinses vaccines have been going on in countries like Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Last week, Chinese authorities granted the first patent to a Coronavirus vaccine. The COVID-19 vaccine has been developed by a team headed by China’s top military virologist Chen Wei and biopharmaceutical company CanSino Biologics.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Centre for Drug Evaluation had laid down the norms for firms to acquire approval for use of COVID-19 vaccine in the country. It said that coronavirus vaccines must have an efficacy rate of 50 per cent. It needs to provide at least six months’ immunity. The regulator also said that vaccines, which will meet the efficacy standard but are yet to complete testing, can be used in emergencies.

Earlier, Russia had claimed that as many as 20 countries have requested over a billion doses of its Coronavirus vaccine ‘Sputnik-V’ developed by Moscow-based Gamaleya Institute. Russia Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) head Kirill Dmitriev had claimed that countries in Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia displayed the greatest interest. He also said that Russia had the capacity to produce more than 500 million doses of vaccine per year in five countries.