China’s vaccine specialist CanSino Biologics Inc has won a patent approval from Beijing for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate Ad5-nCOV, according to the National Intellectual Property Administration. The patent was submitted for application on March 18 and was approved on Aug 11, according to the patent document.
The vaccine uses a weakened common cold virus to introduce genetic material from the novel coronavirus into the human body. The goal is to train the body to produce antibodies that recognize the coronavirus’s spike protein and fight it off.
The phase-two clinical trial of the vaccine has found it is safe and can induce an immune response, according to research published in the journal Lancet last month. The phase-three clinical trial, which will include more participants and be conducted overseas, is currently in the pipeline.
Experts have called adenovirus vector vaccine a promising technique for its safety and potency against COVID-19 based on current evidence, as well as its potential in mass production. The United Kingdom and Russia are also working on a vaccine candidate using this kind of technology.
However, many pressing questions regarding the vaccine candidate remain, such as the longevity of the protection, the appropriate dosage to trigger a strong immune response, and whether there are host-specific differences. These questions will be probed in the larger scale phase-three trials.
