The establishment of the Omilon immune barrier, China's multi-technology route vaccine development has made progress

On March 19, at the press conference of the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council, Zheng Zhongwei, head of the vaccine research and development special class of the scientific research group and director of the Science and Technology Development Center of the National Health and Health Commission, revealed that the mainland has made positive progress in the research and development of monovalent and multivalent vaccines for multiple technical routes of the Aomi Kerong variant.

At present, Omi kerong has become the main new crown variant of the global epidemic, with the characteristics of fast transmission and strong invisibility, and has led to a large number of asymptomatic cases surge. Domestically, however, vaccination levels for the elderly remain low.

Multiple technical routes of vaccines go hand in hand

On March 19, there were 1,656 new locally confirmed cases in China, with 2,177 asymptomatic infected people, of which 492 were asymptomatic in Shanghai. In the case of an Opmi Kerong breakthrough infection, it is interesting to see when a vaccine against the Aomi Kerong variant can be used.

In response, Zheng Zhongwei responded: "Vaccines are special products for healthy people, and safety is the first. While promoting the speed of research and development of vaccines against the Ami kerong variant, the scientific principles of vaccine safety and efficacy have always been the first. ”

He also said that as soon as the Omikejong mutation appeared, China's vaccine research and development team had already begun to act. "So far, positive progress has been made in the research and development of vaccines for the monovalent and multivalent vaccines of the Aumicron variant, and the preclinical studies have been completed relatively quickly, and the declaration materials for clinical trials are being submitted to the national drug regulatory department on a rolling basis." Zheng Zhongwei said.

He also revealed that China's inactivated vaccines have carried out unit price, as well as the research and development of the "Delta + Omicron" bivalent and "prototype strain + Delta + Omicron" trivalent vaccines, and basically completed preclinical research and have been verified; China's recombinant protein vaccine is also carrying out the research and development of the "Alpha + Beta + Delta + Omicron" quadrivalent vaccine, and is applying for overseas clinical trials; China's adenovirus vector vaccine has also been optimized and prepared for vaccine strains and is carrying out preclinical research China's mRNA vaccine is also actively promoting preclinical research.

Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, quoted data recently reported by China on March 15 as saying that the number of cases of Infection in Ami kerong has accounted for about 80% of people infected with the new crown, of which the Aomi Kerong BA.2 and BA.1.1 subtype variants are the most common. "Imported infections, transmission of the Omikejung variant and a high proportion of asymptomatic and mild cases are the main causes of cluster infection outbreaks in the country in a short period of time," he said. ”

Dr. Zhang Wenhong, director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases and head of the Shanghai Covid-19 Clinical Treatment Expert Group, previously said that there are three "weapons" to defeat the epidemic, including adequate vaccination, effective antiviral drugs for the treatment of new crown diseases, and very sufficient medical capabilities.

A vaccine expert told the first financial reporter: "Although the number of people infected with Omi Kerong in China has increased significantly, it is still a very small number of people, so it is necessary to control the epidemic through the vaccination of specific vaccines and finally achieve dynamic clearance of the social surface." ”

Manufacturers are eager to carry out clinical trials

At present, vaccine manufacturers including Sinopharm, Coxing, CanSino, Abbott Biotech, and Si Microbial are developing specific vaccines for Opmi Kerong. InBev, the founder of mRNA vaccine manufacturer Aibo Biologics, revealed to the first financial reporter last month that the research and development work related to the specific vaccine of the Ami kerong variant is underway, three batches of GMP products have been produced, and the company is actively communicating with the regulatory authorities to strive to enter the clinical trial stage as soon as possible.

The first financial reporter also learned from the mRNA vaccine manufacturer Si Microbial that the company has developed an iterative vaccine for the Delta variant, which also has a good neutralizing effect on Themi Kerong. Li Hangwen, founder and CEO of Si Microbial, told the first financial reporter that Si Microbial is eagerly looking forward to the company's iterative vaccines to quickly obtain domestic clinical approvals and carry out clinical verification.

Li Hangwen said that the iterative seedlings of Si microorganisms have been clinically phased in Laos, and from the current data, the safety of the vaccine is good, and the yang conversion rate of one injection is close to 80%. In Brazil, Indonesia, Cambodia and Bangladesh, iterative seedlings of Slovak microorganisms have been approved for clinical trials and will be conducted in the near future. The company said that Zhoupu and Fengxian in Shanghai have built factories with an annual output of 400 million pieces.

From the perspective of the global new crown infection situation, benefiting from the high vaccination rate in some countries, the fatality rate of Omiljung in countries such as the United Kingdom has been lower than that of influenza, and the infection mortality rate of seasonal influenza is between 0.01% and 0.05%.

According to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University in the United States as of last week, in Asia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea and other countries with high vaccination rates, the COVID-19 mortality rate is 0.1% to 0.2%, and the percentage of unvaccinated people in these countries is less than 10%.

Zeng Yixin, deputy director of the National Health Commission, said at a press conference on March 18: "The whole process of vaccination and the strengthening of vaccination are very meaningful and valuable for the elderly, especially for the elderly, and we will continue to increase our efforts to promote this work." ”

At an online meeting of the "High-score Forum on New Progress in COVID-19 Prevention" held on March 20, Zhang Wenhong also said: "Vaccination must reach a fairly high level in order to have the initial conditions for gradual liberalization. ”

He also said that both European and American countries and the WHO have proposed to strengthen the immunization protection of vulnerable populations, the most important protection object is the elderly population. "This is related to the characteristics of the spread of the epidemic internationally, and in countries with better epidemic control, the vaccination level of the elderly population is relatively low." Zhang Wenhong said.

"The R0 value transmitted by Omikeron is 7 to 8, and the R0 value of its subtype strain BA.2 reaches the level of 8, which will pose a high risk of infection for the elderly population." Zhang Wenhong said, "It is necessary to do a good job of adequate vaccine protection for vulnerable groups such as the elderly, so that the conditions for gradual reopening can be met, and the immune barrier for Omi kerong is gradually established, which is crucial." ”