LEADING Chinese vaccine developer CanSino Biologics Inc. has inked a deal to test and sell a separate Canadian vaccine candidate as the race for immunization intensifies globally.

In addition to developing its own vaccine together with the Chinese military, CanSino will partner with Vancouver-based Precision NanoSystems Inc. to co-develop another potential vaccine.

The Chinese company will conduct testing of Precision’s experimental vaccine and has the right to commercialize it in Asia, excluding Japan.

Widely viewed as one of the front-runners in the race to develop a successful vaccine, the new deal adds to CanSino’s chances of being among the first to deliver immunizing shots.

President Xi Jinping has pledged to make any effective vaccine against the coronavirus that is developed by China accessible and affordable globally as a public good.

CanSino’s own vaccine is currently in the second of three phases of human testing and is among five Chinese candidates to have reached that advanced stage — more than the U.S. and Europe combined.

CanSino’s stock rose 3.74 percent in Hong Kong trading Friday after it abruptly reversed gains in afternoon trading and closed down 13 percent Thursday.

The Tianjin-based company was set up in 2009 by vaccine industry veterans who had previously worked for global pharmaceutical firms like Sanofi and AstraZeneca Plc. The company’s partnered with the Chinese military before, developing a shot against Ebola that was approved domestically in 2017, although it was not deployed internationally.

The vaccine that CanSino will co-develop with Precision Nanosystems harnesses an experimental approach also being used by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna Inc. Known as mRNA vaccines, they contain the virus’s genetic sequence to instruct cells to make antigens that elicit a response from the immune system. (SD-Agencies)