Trials of the inhalable Covid vaccine will begin soon in China

April 20, 2021: China’s CanSino Biologics will begin clinical trials for a Covid-19 vaccine administered by inhalation from the coming week, the company’s co-founder and Chief Executive Xuefeng Yu told CNBC on Sunday.

Efficacy rates for China’s Covid vaccines are lower than those developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Earlier this month, the Chinese Center for Disease Control director acknowledged publicly that Chinese vaccines “don’t have very high protection rates” and that they consider vaccinating people with different Covid shots to boost its efficacy.

 An inhaling vaccine could be more effective than those injected when the coronavirus enters the human body through the airways; Yu told CNBC.

CanSinoBIO is jointly developing the inhalation vaccine with the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology. The company’s Adenovirus Type 5 Vector vaccine administered by injection was already approved for use in China and several other countries.

CanSino Biologics of China will start clinical trials for a Covid-19 vaccine administered through inhalation next week, the company’s co-founder and Chief Executive Xuefeng Yu told CNBC on Sunday.

Efficacy rates for China’s Covid vaccines are lower than those developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Earlier this month, the Chinese Center for Disease Control director publicly acknowledged that Chinese vaccines “don’t have very high protection rates” and that they were considering giving people different Covid shots to boost vaccine efficacy.

The CEO said the company had used the same concept to develop an inhalation vaccine for tuberculosis or TB. Trials conducted in Canada showed that the inhaled dosage for the TB vaccine needed to provide protection is “much, much less than the actual injection,” he said.