China National Biotec Group (CNBG), a unit of state-owned pharmaceutical giant China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm), also said it had obtained emergency use approval for a coronavirus vaccine candidate in social media platform WeChat on Sunday. CNBG, which has two vaccine candidates in phase 3 clinical trials, did not say which of its vaccines had been cleared for emergency use. Officially, China has given little details on which vaccine candidates have been given to high-risk people under the emergency use programme and how many people have been vaccinated. State media reported in June, prior to the emergency use programme, that employees at state firms travelling overseas were allowed to take one of the two vaccines being developed by CNBG, while China's military had also approved the use of CanSino Biologics' vaccine candidate. Seven vaccines against the coronavirus are in final trial stages around the world, and four of them are from China.

Source: bd News24 August 28, 2020 08:03 UTC