China's recombinant protein vaccine to aid global fight against pandemic: media

Screenshot shows the report poublished by South China Morning Post on Mar. 17.

China's latest COVID-19 vaccine to gain emergency use authorization, also known as ZF 2001 is expected to be affordable, easier to produce and store, South China Morning Post reported on Mar. 17.

The vaccine was jointly developed by the institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd.. The recombinant protein subunit vaccine is the first of its kind to be approved in the world for use against the COVID-19 virus.

“The technique has been widely used in vaccines for hepatitis B, whooping cough and flu and is considered very safe,” the report said.

Instead of using the whole virus, the recombinant protein vaccine insert purified antigen into human body, which cannot cause disease so makes side effects less likely. By using specific pieces of the germ, the vaccine can trigger a very strong immune response targeted to the key parts of the virus.

In comparison with its inactivated counterpart, this kind of vaccine is “easier and cheaper to achieve large-scale industrial production at home and overseas” since it does not need a high-grade biosafety laboratory for manufacture. It is expected to increase the global capacity of COVID-19 vaccines and ease the production bottleneck.

The Zhifei's vaccine is also known to be easily store and transport due to its relatively low storage requirements, namely at 2-8 degrees Celsius, making it potentially more suitable in countries where specialised storage and distribution facilities may be limited.

Despite the domestic approval, ZF 2001 was also approved for emergency use and marketing authorization in Uzbekistan. The central Asian nation has started the phase-3 trial of the vaccines since December last year.

Up to now, China has developed vaccines from five technological routes, namely inactivated vaccine, recombinant protein vaccine, adenoviral vector vaccine, attenuated influenza vaccine and nucleic acid vaccine. The COVID-19 recombinant protein vaccine developed by Zhifei is the fifth coronavirus vaccine approved in China and the fourth to be given emergency use approval.