New Delhi: With China’s National Medical Products Administration on Sunday giving a nod to CanSino’s Ad5-nCoV for emergency use as a booster dose, China has become the first country to approve a needle-free, inhaled version of a COVID-19 vaccine, news agency Bloomberg reported quoted an official statement.
China’s National Medical Products Administration approved CanSino’s Ad5-nCoV for emergency use as a booster vaccine, the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Sunday.
The vaccine is a new version of CanSino’s one-shot Covid drug, the first in the world to undergo human testing in March 2020 and which has been used in China, Mexico, Pakistan, Malaysia and Hungary after being rolled out in February 2021. The inhaled version can stimulate cellular immunity and induce mucosal immunity to boost protection without intramuscular injection, CanSino was quoted as saying.
Companies are looking into developing inhaled versions of vaccines to stimulate antibodies in nasal and airway tissues to defend against coronavirus. They are needle-free and can be self-administered, broadening their appeal to vaccine-hesitant people and potentially easing pressure on healthcare resources.
CanSino’s initial one-shot vaccine was found to be 66% effective in preventing COVID-19 symptoms and 91% effective against severe disease.
