Chinese vaccine maker Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd. has started phase-3 clinical trials for its COVID-19 vaccine, planning to recruit 29,000 volunteers across the world. This is China’s first phase-3 efficacy study for a recombinant subunit COVID-19 vaccine candidate. It was Jointly developed by the company and the CAS Institute of Microbiology,
Randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled phase-1 and -2 clinical trials were started on June 23 with volunteers aged between 18 and 59 from Beijing, Chongqing and Hunan. A global multi-center phase III study was started on Nov. 4.
According to the company, up to 29,000 adults aged 18 and up, have been enrolled in Xiangtan County, Hunan Province, and global trials have begun in Uzbekistan, to be followed by trials in Indonesia, Pakistan and Ecuador.
A COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing plant of the company was put into use in September. According to the company, annual production capacity for the COVID-19 vaccine will top 300 million doses.
Xinhua news release, November 20, 2020