UAE to host phase 3 trials for Chinese vaccine

The world's first inactivated vaccine developed by a Chinese company to fight the novel coronavirus will carry out its phase-3 clinical trial in the United Arab Emirates.

China National Biotech Group Co Ltd, Sinopharm's vaccine and bioscience unit, held a video conference connecting Beijing, Wuhan and Abu Dhabi on Tuesday for the launch of the trial.

The UAE health ministry granted the approval document for the clinical trial during the video conference.

Since China has few confirmed COVID-19 cases, it could not meet the conditions for the phase-3 trial of the vaccine's safety and efficacy on a large scale, therefore CNBG sought overseas cooperation.

On June 16, CNBG announced the phase-1 and phase-2 clinical trials of its inactivated vaccine had demonstrated good performance in safety and effectiveness on vaccinated volunteers. No subjects showed serious adverse reactions, the company said.

The company said a total of 1,120 volunteers were vaccinated during the phase-1 and phase-2 clinical trials, all of whom produced high-tier antibodies. In the 18-to-59-year-old age group, those who got two doses of vaccine based on the 0-and-28-day procedure demonstrated 100 percent antibody positive conversion rate, while those who got two doses based on the 0-and-14-day and 0-and-21-day procedures showed 97.6 percent antibody positive conversion rates.