Years after the rest of the world, an mRNA vaccine against Covid-19 has now been approved in China for the first time. The Chinese company CSPC Pharmaceutical received the green light from Chinese health authorities on Wednesday for its vaccine based on mRNA technology. This makes it the first domestically developed approved vaccine of its kind. China has so far rejected the use of mRNA vaccines from abroad, although the corona vaccines currently available in the People's Republic are considered less effective than the mRNA vaccines from Biontech/Pfizer and Moderna. Their use had already been released in the USA and the EU at the end of 2020/beginning of 2021.
So far, the People's Republic has only used vaccines that have been developed and produced in China - above all Sinovac and Sinopharm. BioNTech has not yet been approved in China, although the company signed a license agreement with the Chinese Fosun Pharma in spring 2020 for the development and marketing of the vaccine in China. German citizens living in China have been able to be vaccinated with BioNTech since the end of last year, after Chancellor Olaf Scholz campaigned for it. At that time, the country was facing a violent wave of infections after the sudden departure from its restrictive zero-Covid policy. In addition, Chinese people in Hong Kong could also be boosted with BioNTech.
Meanwhile, corona cases in China are declining nationwide. According to CSPC, the company's vaccine targets some of the key Okron subvariants and demonstrated good neutralizing effect against variants BA.5, BF.7, BQ.1.1., XBB.1.5 and CH.1.1 in kinic trials as a booster shot. In the study of 4,000 participants, which took place from Dec. 10 to Jan. 18, the vaccine would have achieved 85.3 percent efficacy in those who received a protein vaccine as a first vaccination. CSPC did not specify how many cans the company plans to produce. The Chinese CanSino is also working on an mRNA vaccine.