Chinese vaccine developer CanSino Biologics Inc – based in the city of Tianjin in North China – announced at a news release on April 4 that it had gained approval from the National Medical Products Administration to launch clinical trials for its experimental COVID-19 mRNA vaccine.

The company said that preclinical studies have shown that their candidate elicits high levels of antibodies capable of targeting multiple key variants of the novel coronavirus, including the currently dominant Omicron strain.

The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine was developed by subsidiary CanSino SPH Biologics Inc – which is located in East China's Shanghai city – and its parent group. It is one of the first mRNA vaccines against novel coronavirus mutant strains approved for clinical trials in China – and CanSino SPH Biologics has become the first research and development and production company in Shanghai to obtain clinical approval.

CanSino SPH Biologics signed up to settle in the Lingang Life Science & Tech Park, in the Lin-gang Special Area in Shanghai, last October. Its customized plant for the mRNA technology's industrialization was delivered to its new premises in November. The company is understood to be pushing to realize large-scale industrialization production by the end of this year.

The exterior of CanSino Biologics Inc's offices in Shanghai. [Photo/IC]