Chinese vaccine developer CanSino Biologics is in talks with Russia, Brazil, Chile and Saudi Arabia to launch a Phase III trial of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine, according to its co-founder.
While speaking at an anti-viral drug development conference in Suzhou, China, Qiu Dongxu, executive director and co-founder of CanSino, said that China’s success in driving down COVID-19 infections has made it harder to conduct large-scale vaccine trials, and so far only a few countries have agreed to work with the drugmaker. Dongxu says the drugmaker is still in discussion with Russia, Brazil, Chile and Saudi Arabia in order to recruit participants.
According to Qiu Dongxu, as reported by Reuters, a Phase III trial will start soon and the drugmaker plans to recruit 40,000 participants.
CanSino's COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Ad5-nCov, was the first in China to move into human testing in March but is now behind potential vaccines developed by Sinovac Biotech and a unit of China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm).
Read the Reuters coverage
