A new vaccine against the new coronavirus Omicron variant has begun to market. On April 26, Sinopharm Group China Bio-Omicoron Variant Novel Coronavirus Inactivated Vaccine received clinical approval from the State Food and Drug Administration.
Why do we need a vaccine specifically for Omicron? When will the new vaccine be available? How will the new vaccine be administered and what is the vaccination strategy? On April 27, Sinopharm China Biological Organization Media Communication Meeting answered the above questions one by one.
▲Image source: Sinopharm Group
Why do you need a special Omicron vaccine?
As early as December last year, shortly after the Omicron variant appeared, the World Health Organization issued a reminder that preliminary evidence showed that the Omicron variant may weaken the effectiveness of the new crown vaccine , people are at higher risk of being re-infected with this strain.
As Omicron gradually became the mainstream strain, this suggestion was confirmed.
In response to the question of how wide the mutation span of the new coronavirus requires a new vaccine, Zhang Yuntao, chief scientist and vice president of Sinopharm China Biotechnology, told the Science and Technology Daily reporter: When the neutralizing antibody produced by the prototype strain is very sensitive to Omicron When the neutralizing activity of the virus decreases significantly, new vaccines need to be developed. The results of the current study show that neutralizing antibodies do drop substantially in neutralizing activity in the face of Omicron.
For this reason, vaccine researchers at home and abroad are looking for an effective vaccine against Omicron to improve the protective effect of the vaccine. However, up to now, foreign countries have not obtained better results than the original strain in terms of immunogenicity when developing a new generation of Omicron vaccine.
“Our China Biotechnology found that the neutralizing antibody against Omicron has been greatly improved during the immunogenicity research of animal experiments in preclinical research, which is different from foreign countries. .” Zhang Yuntao said.
When will the new vaccine become available?
“After obtaining the clinical trial approval, we are accelerating the relevant clinical research work.” Zhang Yuntao introduced that the new vaccine is planned to conduct clinical research in mainland China and Hong Kong in the short term. The clinical research work will be carried out in accordance with the relevant guidelines for vaccine development and evaluation. The relevant clinical program needs to be determined after further discussions with experts and drug regulatory authorities. It is expected to take about 3-4 months to complete.
According to reports, the clinical trial in Hong Kong is in the process of intensive preparations, and the official clinical trial vaccination work can be started in the near future.
Can it stop breakthrough infections?
In the upcoming clinical trial study, the research team will pay close attention to whether the vaccine can stimulate the human body to produce specific neutralizing antibodies against Omicron.
“This is the core issue of vaccine effectiveness and will be continuously observed in clinical research.” Zhang Yuntao said that further effects still need to be verified in humans to give clinical evidence of vaccine effectiveness. data.
According to reports, during the development of the new vaccine, the research team also paid close attention to the situation of cellular immunity, and also designed continuous detection of cellular immunity during the design process of clinical research. Cellular immunity will make up for the generally poor persistence of neutralizing antibodies against the new coronavirus.
How can I get the new vaccine in the future?
According to the current vaccination situation of the new crown vaccine in my country, the clinical research plan of the new vaccine will be carried out separately according to two routes.
Zhang Yuntao introduced that the clinical trial of the new vaccine was not designed as the fourth injection of the vaccine. The upcoming Omicron vaccine will be carried out for two groups of people, some of whom are those who have been vaccinated and two and three doses of the new crown inactivated vaccine, and one and two doses of the Omicron vaccine will be carried out in the future. clinical research.
“We have also started the vaccination study of blank populations.” Zhang Yuntao explained that direct injection of Omicron vaccine in people who have not been vaccinated against the new crown to observe its safety and immunogenicity, if this part Clinical studies have obtained data, and blank populations can be directly vaccinated with new vaccines.