China coronavirus vaccine ‘ready next month’

China is attempting to fast-track a coronavirus vaccine to be used during emergencies from next month.

The COVID-19 virus. Picture: AFP

China says it is attempting to fast-track a coronavirus vaccine to be used during emergencies from April.

China’s National Health Commission claims to be working with eight research institutes to develop vaccines which the centre’s director says will enter clinical trials next month.

New drugs usually go through a strict regime of phased clinical trials.

Phase I trials involve dispensing the drug to a small group to test its safety, phase II involves testing the drug’s effectiveness with a larger group. Phase III trials use larger groups and include monitoring adverse effects.

However the director of the commission’s science and technology development centre, Zheng Zhongwei, is suggesting these steps may be bypassed so a vaccine can be used in “emergency situations” in April.

It is understood a provision allowing any vaccine to be fast-tracked came into force at the start of December, as part of a new health law in China, about two weeks before the first reports of coronavirus.

The new law also dealt with the black market of foreign vaccine in China that came about because the bureaucracy was slow to approve vaccines developed in other parts of the world.

Speaking at a media conference in Beijing, Mr Zheng dismissed concerns around the safety of the vaccine, saying all development processes were advancing in accordance with “scientific and standardised technical requirements” and are on the premise of “ensuring safety and effectiveness”.

However virtually every institute developing a coronavirus vaccine outside China says it will take months, maybe more than a year to develop and test it for safety and effectiveness.

Mr Zheng’s statement followed Chinese president Xi Jinping’s visit to two top research institutes in Beijing, where he called for a step up of development efforts and international collaborations. Chinese media said Mr Xi had visited the Academy of Military Medical Sciences and the School of Medicine at Tsinghua University on March 2.

According to Chinese media reports, eight institutions are working on vaccines along five technical routes. Some have begun animal trials.

There are also reports of institutes offering money to people who are not infected to take part in clinical trials for the virus. The trials are mostly to assess the human safety of new vaccines, but one trial would involve humans being injected with already common variants of coronavirus that aren’t deadly like COVID-19.

British research body Open Orphan has announced a human challenge study, which will recruit 24 people. Those taking part will be infected with viruses related to COVID-19.

It is understood the research will be conducted through subsidiary hVIVO in a 24-bed quarantine facility in Europe, and that the research is seeking financial support from Chinese sources.

China state media has reported that a Shanghai research team is developing a COVID-19 vaccine by using human cells as a carrier.

The report said Xu Jianqing, director of the Institute of Emerging Infectious Diseases at Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre, gave himself a dose of COVID-19 nucleic acid vaccine in February – after it had been tested in mice. He plans to receive a shot of the human cell carrier vaccine in about two weeks.

"If we continue to follow the old ways in the development of the novel coronavirus vaccine, we will miss a great opportunity to tackle the key scientific problems,” he told commercial Chinese media.

However, experts told Chinese media that the final success of the vaccine remains challenging.