The Xi Jinping-led Chinese government has approved the use of any experimental Covid-19 vaccine for their military, as part of a global race to stop the ongoing pandemic. Known as Ad5-nCoV, the vaccine was jointly-developed by the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology and vaccine company CanSino Biologics.
In a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, CanSino announced that China's Central Military Commission had given the vaccine a “military specially-needed drug approval” on June 25. The special permission lasts for one year and only applies to military personnel. Beijing continues to insist that its military has remained unaffected by the pandemic, with officials claiming that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has not recorded a single coronavirus case.
A CanSino statement states clinical trials of the new vaccine have shown a “good safety profile” with initial results indicating that Ad5-nCoV had potential to prevent diseases caused by SARS-CoV-2. The company had announced in May that the Canadian government was allowing human trials of the Ad5-nCoV vaccine. The first and second phases of their trials have already been completed.
Iain Stewart, president of the National Research Council of Canada said in a statement, “This vaccine candidate holds great promise.” There are currently at least 17 vaccines in clinical evaluation around the world according to the World Health Organisation, eight of which are being developed in China.
