CanSino Biologics Has First COVID-19 Vaccine to Reach Phase 2

CanSino Biologics is starting phase II clinical trials for Ad5-nCoV, a COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

Ad5-nCoV is a genetic engineered vaccine candidate with the replication-defective adenovirus type 5 as the vector to express SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which intends to be used to prevent the disease caused by the novel coronavirus infection.

In the phase 1 trial, 108 subjects were tested for the vaccine’s safety and for T-cell and antibody responses. The vaccine has moved from phase 1 into phase 2 in just three weeks.

14 thoughts on “CanSino Biologics Has First COVID-19 Vaccine to Reach Phase 2”

  1. The Federal government should be funding many parallel efforts in finding an effective treatment for COVID-19. COVID-19 is costing the economy tens of billions every day there is no treatment. People can deal with being sick. They just hate dying. An effective treatment would be the fastest way to re-open the economy. There are at least three possible near term treatments: blood plasma from recovered patients, anti-virals, and monoclonal anti-bodies. We need to get all of these into clinical trials now. It should only take about a month to get some results from the clinical trials. At we wait for the results we should prepare production facilities for all possible treatment. Yes, we will waste money but it will be a lot less money than COVID-19 is costing us.

  2. From what I’ve heard/read, most of the tested drugs tend to work best in medium severity cases. Once you’re on a respirator, it’s too late.

    And that’s another key point that adds complexity: the efficacy can vary significantly, depending on when each drug is administered.

  3. Annoyingly we don’t have clear stats or remdesivir. The 2/3rds number is for critically ill patients using it on a compassionate use basis- basically people who are on the verge of death. So that is actually a really good number.

    I want to know how it works when people who aren’t critically ill get it. What happens when you take it if you first are admitted to a hospital?

  4. Seems remdesivir is only partly effective, close to 2/3 of treated with it showing any improvement as per some reports.

    Not sure about the expected efficacy for approval, but seems good enough to me at the point we are, when we have nothing but luck and your access to some extreme medical measures.

    And remdesivir’s safety has been tested a lot on humans, when it was validated as an Ebola treatment.

  5. Good luck for them.

    I’ve read that coronavirus vaccines are particularly hard to make right, mostly because they have had a bad history of developing immune oversensibility in animal models (basically they work, but almost any cold will risk giving you pneumonia and cytokine storm).

    For reaching phase 2, I assume they have already passed that threshold, though.

  6. I don’t know how excited much of the world will be to use a Chinese vaccine given the shoddy tests, masks, etc. that they have shipped around the world.

    I don’t doubt the efficacy of the vaccine, to paraphrase Return of the Jedi “Many Uighrs died to bring us this information…”

  7. not that simple.
    “…a Phase 3 readout of Remdesivir, in patients with COVID-19. Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day released an open letter Friday with an update on ongoing trials. In the letter, he noted preliminary data from a Phase 3 trial of remdesivir in severe patients are due at the end of April. In May, initial data will be released from a placebo-controlled NIAID trial as well as data from a Gilead trial in patients with moderate symptoms. The Phase 3 trial in China was stopped due to stalled enrolment…INOVIO became the third company to initiate human trials for a potential vaccine for COVID-19. Initial immune responses and safety data from the Phase 1 trial of INO-4800 are due by late summer this year. The other company to have initiated a trial is Moderna. BioCryst shares closed up 40% following news it has opened enrollment into a Phase 1 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial to assess the safety, clinical impact and antiviral effects of galidesivir in patients with COVID-19….”
    many approaches. many levels of ‘robustness’ in trial methodology.

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