COVID-19 Vaccine Protects Monkeys from Infection, Chinese Biotech Reports
KABUL (MEP) – For the first time, a COVID-19 vaccine “largely protects” a type of monkeys, rhesus macaques, from infection by the new virus, according to research conducted by Chinese Sinovac Biotech.
The vaccine, an old-fashioned formulation consisting of a chemically inactivated version of the virus, produced no obvious side effects in the monkeys.
Researchers from Sinovac Biotech have said human trials began on 16 April.
Sinovac Biotech said it injected two different doses of its vaccine into eight rhesus macaque monkeys and exposed them to the virus three weeks later, and they did not develop infections.
All the monkeys “were largely protected against SARS-CoV-2 infection”, Sinovac said in its findings.
Four macaques who received a high dose of the vaccine had “no detectable” amounts of the virus in their lungs seven days after they were administered the pathogen.
Another four monkeys given low doses showed an increase in the viral load in their bodies but appeared to have controlled the virus on their own, it said.
In contrast, four monkeys who were not given the vaccine fell ill from the virus and suffered severe pneumonia.
The results “give us a lot of confidence” that the vaccine will work in humans, says Meng Weining, Sinovac’s senior director for overseas regulatory affairs.
The main concern is that monkeys do not develop the most severe symptoms that SARS-CoV-2 causes in humans.
