China's CanSino: 'positive' interim data on COVID mRNA vaccine booster trial

Cansino Biologics

05/01/2023 14:15

HONG KONG, Jan 5 (Reuters) - China's CanSino Biologics
Inc  6185.HK  688185.SS  reported on Thursday "positive" interim
data on its experimental COVID-19 mRNA booster vaccine in a
mid-stage clinical trial.
    The clinical study was to evaluate the safety and
immunogenicity for adults aged 18 years and above, the
pharmaceutical firm said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock
exchange. 
    The vaccine, called CS-2034, was tested as a booster on
people who had received three doses of an inactivated vaccine,
it said. Such vaccines, like those made by Sinopharm and
SinoVac, are the type used in China.
    China has nine domestically-developed COVID vaccines
approved for use, but none are based on the messenger RNA
technology used in the shots developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and
Moderna. 
    The Chinese shots have also not been updated to target the
highly infectious Omicron variant.
    CanSino obtained approval to start the clinical trial on
mRNA vaccine in April.
 (Reporting by Meg Shen; Editing by Josephine Mason and Tomasz
Janowski)
 ((meg.shen@thomsonreuters.com; 852-39525805;))