Did you know?

ChinaBio® Group is a consulting and advisory firm helping life science companies and investors achieve success in China. ChinaBio works with U.S., European and APAC companies and investors seeking partnerships, acquisitions, novel technologies and funding in China.  

Learn more >>

Free Newsletter

Have the latest stories on China's life science industry delivered to your inbox daily or weekly - free!

  Email address:
   

Sinopharm CNBG Starts Phase III Trial of COVID-19 Vaccine in Abu Dhabi

publication date: Jul 17, 2020
 | 
author/source: Richard Daverman, PhD

CNBG, the biologics arm of Sinopharm, has started a 15,000 person Phase III trial of its inactivated COVID-19 vaccine in Abu Dhabi. The trial is supported by a partnership between Abu Dhabi-based G42 Healthcare and Sinopharm CNBG, the world’s sixth largest vaccine manufacturer. G42 is an Abu Dhabi-based AI company that previously partnered with China's BGI to build a COVID-19 testing laboratory. In its China Phase I and II trials, the CNBG vaccine produced antibodies in 100% of trial volunteers

The trial will test two vaccine strains and a placebo. Two doses will be administered three weeks apart ,and volunteers will be followed for a year, said Nawal Alkaabi, head of the UAE’s COVID-19 Clinical Management Committee. Around 15,000 volunteers over three to six months will be recruited, initially in Abu Dhabi. They will be 18 to 60 years of age with no serious underlying medical issues and without previous COVID-19 infection. The trial is being conducted by Abu Dhabi Health Services (SEHA), which is providing clinical facilities.

H.E. Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Hamed, Chairman of the Department of Health, Abu Dhabi, is heading up the trial. The UAE says it was selected to conduct the trials because it is home to over 200 nationalities, allowing for robust research across multiple ethnicities and increasing its feasibility for global application.

Chairperson of the UAE National COVID-19 Clinical Management Committee Dr. Nawal Ahmed Alkaabi said: “Our participation in this trial enables us to make a major contribution in the global fight to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. We are proud to facilitate the testing process that if successful leads to the manufacture of a vaccine.”

G42 Healthcare CEO Ashish Koshy said: “We are enormously proud to partner with Sinopharm CNBG in this groundbreaking phase III clinical trial. Using our AI solutions, super-computer and advanced diagnostics solutions for COVID-19, G42 Healthcare will be responsible for running clinical operations for these trials.”

Jingjin Zhu, President, Biological products, Sinopharm CNBG added: “The UAE is a nation of innovation and tolerance, home to individuals from every part of the world and ethnic background. We will work closely with our partner G42 Healthcare, with the support of the Abu Dhabi health authorities to complete these clinical trials successfully and make this vaccine available to people in need worldwide.”

CNBG also announced it has completed construction of a dedicated COVID-19 R&D lab and a COVID-19 vaccine production workshop in Wuhan, China. The project grew from the two makeshift hospitals. Huoshenshan and Leishenshan, built by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) at the height of the Wuhan virus outbreak. The China Construction Third Engineering Bureau finished building the CNBG complex in just over 100 days.

The workshop can produce over 100 million doses of the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine per year. It will help to develop China’s scale production of COVID-19 vaccines, and lay a solid foundation for large-scale vaccination in the future.

The UAE has conducted more than 4 million coronavirus infection tests on a population of around 9.6 million. It has recorded almost 56,000 cases of infection and 335 deaths.

See our other articles on Sinopharm and CNBG.

Disclosure: none.

 


 

Share this with colleagues:

 

ChinaBio® News

Greg Scott BIO-Europe Interview
Greg Scott Interviewed at BIO-Europe Spring

How to bring your China assets to China in 8 minutes


Greg Scott Mendelspod Interview
"Mr. Bio in China."
Mendelspod Interview

Multinational pharma held to a higher standard in China

Partner Event
November 2-3, 2023 | Shanghai
November 7-8, 2023 | Digital