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Published 17:46 IST, August 18th 2020

Coronavirus vaccine will be available by end of the year: Chinese company

Liu Jingzhen, chairman of major state-owned Chinese pharmaceutical company SinoPharm said its coronavirus vaccine will be commercially available by the year-end

Reported by: Anmol Bali
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Liu Jingzhen, chairman of major state-owned Chinese pharmaceutical company SinoPharm said its coronavirus vaccine will be commercially available by the end of the year. While speaking to the Chinese Communist party newspaper Liu Jingzhen said that coronavirus vaccine will cost less than 1000 yuan ($140) and will be given in two shots, 28 days apart. He also added students and workers in major cities would need to get the vaccine, but not those living in sparsely populated rural areas.

“Not all of the 1.4 billion people in our country have to take it,” he said in an interview published on August 18 in the Guangming Daily.

SinoPharma has two vaccines under the trial phase and it can manufacture 220 million doses annually. Liu, who is also the company’s Communist Party secretary, told the paper that he had been injected with the vaccine. According to reports Chinese researchers and executives have received shots of their vaccines, which raised ethical questions in some scientific circles.

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CanSino Vaccine got registered 

Shortly after the Chinese Army received the approval for the usage of a COVID-19 experimental vaccine jointly developed by the military's research unit and CanSino Biologics, Chinese state media on August 18 reported that the country had granted its first COVID-19 vaccine patent to it. "The adenovirus vector vaccine candidate was found to be safe and able to trigger an immune response in the first and second stages of clinical trials," reported state-sponsored media China Daily on August 18.

According to Chinese media, the vaccine is yet to complete the third and largest phase of trials before gaining market approval, however, animal studies have demonstrated the vaccine's ability to reduce viral amounts in the lungs thereby inducing immunity. 

(With inputs from agency)

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17:46 IST, August 18th 2020