China-owned Covid vaccine approved for testing in the UAE

Guwahati: A Chinese state-owned vaccine has been approved for final testing in the United Arab Emirates, making it one of the first among a slew of global efforts to get the green light for the final stage of human trials to cure the Covid-19.

Notably, over a dozen experimental vaccines are being trialed across the globe, but none of them has successfully completed a late-stage "Phase 3" test to determine efficacy in shielding healthy people from the virus.

Amid the race to develop the vaccine, Beijing-based China National Biotec Group Co. was awarded approval on Tuesday to conduct Phase III trials for its Covid-19 vaccines in the Middle Eastern country, the company said in a statement posted on its official WeChat account.

It has been reported that CNBG announced it will partner with Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence and cloud computing firm G42 to carry out the trial and local production of the vaccine. It didn't disclose details such as the timing or the number of people it plans to enroll for testing.

The world's fast-developing vaccine programs are moving into the final stage of testing before they are approved for inoculation for the general public.

Across the globe, pharmaceutical companies are racing to be first to find an effective shot against the novel coronavirus, which has infected millions across the world.

CNBG is known to be the first Chinese vaccine developer to proceed toward a Phase III trial to test whether the two shots it developed are effective against the pathogen.

Chinese companies have had to look for places with active virus outbreaks to complete the final stage of human testing, which requires thousands of people.

Meanwhile, the low number of cases in China has made it unfeasible for them to conduct such trials at home.

It is to be mentioned that the UAE is still adding hundreds of cases a day, with a total of more than 45,000 infections.

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