Photo: VCG

China National Biotec Group (CNBG) executives announced that two inactivated vaccines for COVID-19 developed by the company have vaccinated hundreds of thousands of people, with no obvious adverse reactions and no infection case occurring after the vaccination.

Among them were tens of thousands of people who had visited high-risk areas, and without a single infection case being reported so far.

Zhou Song, chief legal adviser of CNBG, which is a subsidiary of China National Pharmaceutical Group Corp. (Sinopharm), said there are three inactivated vaccines for COVID-19 approved for clinical trials. Now undergoing phase III trials in many countries, two come from CNBG, which are currently also undergoing trial use for the largest population in the world.

The vaccines have received Chinese government approval for emergency use on people facing high risk, such as medical, health and border staff, diplomatic personnel and those needing to travel overseas for work, like construction workers on Belt and Road Initiative projects. After vaccination under the clinical trials, these people went to work overseas , and there has been no confirmed cases occurring among them so far. Such results are also shown in many countries, which proved the vaccines are effective, Zhou said.

Zhang Yuntao, vice president of CNBG, said that phase I and II clinical studies of the inactivated COVID-19 vaccines were carried out in China, and neutralizing antibodies were produced. "Neutralizing antibody testing is the gold standard," he explained.

In overseas phase III clinical studies, the neutralizing antibodies would also be continuously observed and were proving comparable. Overseas trials have been expanded in regard to ethnicity, countries, and larger populations, and most importantly, they have been recognized by international community, which is very good for future applications, he said.

Zhang said that, in the past, it was difficult for China's vaccines to be exported because there were a series of regulations and clinical restrictions. Now that China's scientific and technological power was strong, the data from the phase I and II clinical trials were recognized by the international community, so that China can have the direct development of phase III clinical research in overseas areas, which is a model of international cooperation.

"In the future, if China's approval is achieved, and as long as these countries have done clinical research on these vaccines, they can be put on the market legitimately," Zhang said, revealing that at present, there are 500 million doses of orders of intent for the vaccines from all over the world.