Chinese Coronavirus Vaccine To Undergo Phase III Human Trials In Indonesia After Showing Results In 90% Volunteers

Indonesia is planning to initiate the Phase III clinical trials of Chinese coronavirus vaccine early in July, an announcement made days after the manufacturing company claimed that its product generated antibodies in 90% of the volunteers.

Indonesian scientists will be working in close coordination with the Chinese drugmaker, Sinovac Biotech Limited to conduct Phase III clinical trials for the experimental coronavirus vaccine. The information was confirmed to a media outlet by Kusnandi Rusmil, a professor at the Padjadjaran Public University in Bandung, Indonesia.

"The vaccine (candidate) has passed through the Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials well," claimed Rusmil, emphasizing the positive result of the previous studies conducted in china involving 743 volunteers.

The Phase III clinical trial is expected to be conducted in Bandung and two cities in China, including the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, Wuhan.

A total of 1,620 participants between 18 and 50 years are expected to be a part of the study. Rusmil said that after injecting the selected participants with the vaccine, the scientists will note the developments over the next eight months.

If the results turn out to be positive, the Indonesian researchers have vowed to begin the mass production of the Chinese coronavirus vaccine in March 2021 or earlier.

Last week, Sinovac announced positive preliminary results of Phase I/II clinical trials and reported that more than 90% of the volunteers produced antibodies against the novel coronavirus.

“ The neutralizing antibody seroconversion rate is above 90%, which concludes the vaccine candidate can induce a positive immune response,” the company said in a statement.

The full data for the Phase I/II clinical trials are expected to be published in academic journals.

Sinovac has also partnered with Instituto Butantan in Brazil to conduct a Phase III clinical trial for its experimental COVID-19 vaccine. The company has been working in close coordination with the leading scientific institutes in China to prepare coronavirus vaccine since the early days of the outbreak in January 2020.

Sinovac’s vaccine has been named CoronaVac.