China's vaccine maker CanSino Biologics Inc, on Monday, won the patent approval for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate Ad5-nCoV, according to the Chinese Intellectual Property Administration.
It is the first COVID-19 vaccine patent granted by China, according to state-owned newspaper People's Daily.
The patent was submitted for application on March 18 and was approved on August 11, as per the patent document.
Last month, the medical journal Lancet wrote that the Phase-2 clinical trial of the adenovirus vector vaccine or Ad5-nCoV was safe and induced immune response.
The Phase-three trial of the CanSino vaccine will include more participants and conducted overseas. CanSino has said it is also in talks with Russia, Brazil and Chile to launch Phase-3 clinical trials in those countries.
In the Phase-three trial, CanSino will find out the answers to the following queries---longevity of the protection, the appropriate dosage to trigger a strong immune response, and whether there are host-specific differences.
Global race on for COVID-19 vaccine:
Last week Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the development of the world's first vaccine against novel coronavirus. The first dose of the vaccine-Sputnik-V, developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Healthcare Ministry, was administered to Russian President Vladimir Putin's daughter.
Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said that medical workers and teachers will be the first to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The clinical trials of the Sputnik-V kicked off on June 18 and included 38 volunteers. All of the participants developed an immunity. The first group was discharged on July 15, the second group on July 20.
In India, three vaccine candidates are in different stages of human clinical trials, Primer Minister Narendra Modi confirmed in his Independence Day speech on August 15.
The Phase-I and II human clinical trials of two of them, developed indigenously by Bharat Biotech, in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR), and Zydus Cadila Ltd, are currently underway.
The Serum Institute of India has been permitted for conducting Phase II and III human clinical trials of the third vaccine candidate developed by Oxford University. The Pune-based institute has partnered with AstraZeneca for manufacturing the vaccine.
Besides, US firms Moderna and Pfizer have also begun their late-stage trial for coronavirus vaccine. Moderna has received nearly $1 billion from the US government to develop a coronavirus vaccine. Pfizer is working with a German company, BioNTech.
Also read: Russia produces first batch of coronavirus vaccines