CanSino falls behind in race to develop Covid-19 vaccine
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Moscow/Vancouver — One of the world’s fastest-moving efforts to develop a Covid-19 vaccine is falling behind rivals, its advance appearing to be stymied by political tension between China and Canada and concerns its shot may not work as well as others.
CanSino Biologics, the Chinese company which in March started the world’s first human tests on an experimental coronavirus shot, has yet to start administering shots in critical final-stage trials on the vaccine it developed with the Chinese military. Meanwhile, rivals such as US-based Moderna and Britain’s AstraZeneca as well as China’s Sinovac Biotech and Sinopharm are well into this last phase of testing, giving test inoculations to thousands of people to find out if they work.
With its progress towards phase 3 trials trailing major competitors, CanSino hasn’t had the opportunity to assuage concerns from earlier-stage data, which showed the immune response generated by its shot varied greatly among participants. Its setbacks offer a look at both the scientific and political incertitudes companies are battling as they race to produce a vaccine against the virus that has already killed more than 850,000 people worldwide.
Just a few months ago, the Tianjin-based biotechnology firm was positioned at the vanguard of global vaccine trials thanks to a partnership with the Canadian government’s main research agency, which permitted the company to conduct tests in the North American country. CanSino was supposed to send its vaccine candidate — Ad5-nCoV, developed with Canadian technology — to Canada so that final-stage tests could begin there as early as in the northern hemisphere autumn. The vials never arrived.
Chinese customs hasn’t approved shipments of CanSino’s vaccine to Canada, the National Research Council of Canada said in an August 26 e-mail. The development appears to be part of a pattern of retribution against Canada since it arrested Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies, on a US handover request in December 2018. In recent months the relationship between the two countries has only worsened.
Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to China, said it’s clear the blocking of CanSino’s vaccine to Canada isn’t just a bureaucratic glitch because the company appears to have shipped to countries friendly to China.
“This is part of China’s Covid-19 diplomacy,” he said. “It’s unfortunately part of the overall difficulties we’re having with China.”
Global ties
For CanSino, international collaboration is vital because late-stage trials require large-scale testing in ...
CanSino Biologics, the Chinese company which in March started the world’s first human tests on an experimental coronavirus shot, has yet to start administering shots in critical final-stage trials on the vaccine it developed with the Chinese military. Meanwhile, rivals such as US-based Moderna and Britain’s AstraZeneca as well as China’s Sinovac Biotech and Sinopharm are well into this last phase of testing, giving test inoculations to thousands of people to find out if they work.
With its progress towards phase 3 trials trailing major competitors, CanSino hasn’t had the opportunity to assuage concerns from earlier-stage data, which showed the immune response generated by its shot varied greatly among participants. Its setbacks offer a look at both the scientific and political incertitudes companies are battling as they race to produce a vaccine against the virus that has already killed more than 850,000 people worldwide.
Just a few months ago, the Tianjin-based biotechnology firm was positioned at the vanguard of global vaccine trials thanks to a partnership with the Canadian government’s main research agency, which permitted the company to conduct tests in the North American country. CanSino was supposed to send its vaccine candidate — Ad5-nCoV, developed with Canadian technology — to Canada so that final-stage tests could begin there as early as in the northern hemisphere autumn. The vials never arrived.
Chinese customs hasn’t approved shipments of CanSino’s vaccine to Canada, the National Research Council of Canada said in an August 26 e-mail. The development appears to be part of a pattern of retribution against Canada since it arrested Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies, on a US handover request in December 2018. In recent months the relationship between the two countries has only worsened.
Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to China, said it’s clear the blocking of CanSino’s vaccine to Canada isn’t just a bureaucratic glitch because the company appears to have shipped to countries friendly to China.
“This is part of China’s Covid-19 diplomacy,” he said. “It’s unfortunately part of the overall difficulties we’re having with China.”
Global ties
For CanSino, international collaboration is vital because late-stage trials require large-scale testing in ...