First Russian volunteers inoculated with China's COVID-19 vaccine

Moscow [Russia], September 21 (ANI/Sputnik): Russian pharmaceutical company Petrovax launched phase 3 clinical trials of the Chinese Covid-19 vaccine candidate, CanSino Biologics Ad5-nCoV, on the first group of Russian volunteers in Moscow, the company said on Monday.
The Russian company first shared with Sputnik its plans to carry out late-stage clinical trials of the Chinese vaccine candidate, Ad5-nCoV, in mid-August.
"Petrovax, CanSino Biologics Inc. and the contract research organization OCT Clinical have launched vaccinations of the first volunteers in Moscow treatment centers," the company said in a statement obtained by Sputnik.
According to the company, the first volunteers are doing well.
"None of them showed any undesirable effects. According to clinical regulations, study participants will be under direct supervision during the first 28 days after vaccination and will have to undergo four interim face-to-face examinations," Petrovax underlined.
According to the company's forecast, during this period, the vaccinated participants will develop a humoral and cellular immune response to COVID-19.
Petrovax said it would continue to recruit volunteers. Over 3,000 applications were received so far.
Once the Chinese vaccine is registered in Russia, Petrovax will be able to produce it at its facilities in the Moscow Region. The firm plans to market the vaccine domestically and within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). More than 4 million doses of the vaccine per month are expected to be produced in 2020. Starting in 2021, the production volume could be increased to 10 million doses per month.
Ad5-nCOV was the first vaccine to undergo clinical trials on humans in China back in March and phases 1 and 2 were conducted domestically.
According to the Global Times, the vaccine's phase 3 clinical trials are expected to include some 40,000 volunteers. Pakistan, Mexico and Saudi Arabia are also reportedly in talks with China's CanSino Biologics on hosting the vaccine clinical trials. (ANI/Sputnik)