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szdaily -> Markets -> 
CanSino, Europe in vaccine order talks
    2021-03-29  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

CANSINO Biologics Inc. is in talks with a number of European countries about orders for its COVID-19 vaccine, which if signed would mark the first recognition of Chinese drugmakers’ inoculations in the developed world.

Three European Union member states have approached the Tianjin-based vaccine developer to discuss a possible purchase, according to Pierre Morgon, CanSino’s senior vice president in charge of its international business. Morgon declined to identify the three European countries.

Hungary has granted emergency use authorization for the inoculation, making CanSino the second China-developed COVID-19 vaccine approved in the European country, said Hungarian Chief Medical Officer Cecilia Muller earlier last week.

“We are considering extending our regulatory footprints and Europe is definitely in the cards,” Morgon said. “Hungary is bringing an interesting twist to the whole situation because it’s a European country.”

European purchases of the CanSino shot would mark a significant breakthrough in the global rollout of Chinese COVID vaccines. While the world’s second-largest economy has produced four of the 12 vaccines now available worldwide, the shots have gone mainly to developing countries struggling to access those made by Western companies like Pfizer Inc. and AstraZeneca Plc. The lion’s share of those inoculations have gone to the United States and other wealthy nations.

CanSino’s availability as a convenient one-shot vaccine could help boost the European rollout, which has faced challenges like supply limitations and fears over blood clots linked to AstraZeneca’s shot.

“We are facing an increase in demand coming from countries across all the continents,” Morgon said. “Because they have a hard time securing other vaccines and because it is now known we have a safe and effective vaccine.”

For CanSino, European inroads would grant global legitimacy to its vaccine development capabilities. While it was the first in the world to begin human testing in March 2020, the Chinese firm lost its lead after a delay in the start of late-stage studies in countries with active outbreaks. A trial testing the CanSino vaccine with a booster shot in Canada has been indefinitely postponed amid growing tension between China and Canada.

CanSino’s single shot vaccine was 66 percent effective in a trial of 30,000 people across Pakistan, Russia, Argentine, Mexico and Chile, according to officials in Pakistan.

It uses a virus that normally causes the common cold, which has been rendered harmless, to carry the genetic sequence of the coronavirus’ spike protein into the body to stimulate an immune response.

That, according to Morgon, makes the CanSino shot “extremely comparable” to Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot vaccine, with similar technology and efficacy. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been cleared for use in countries across Europe, the United States and South Africa.(SD-Agencies)

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