A kick off ceremony was held at Gleneagles Hospital Hong Kong (Gleneagles or GHK) for initiating a clinical trial to assess the safety and immunogenicity of the Sinovac’s Omicron-specific COVID-19 inactivated vaccine used as a booster shot in healthy adults, in anticipation of providing scientific evidence for future immunization strategy.

This study is led by a medical research team of the University of Hong Kong Clinical Trials Centre (HKU-CTC) in collaboration with Gleneagles.

In this study, a total of 300 healthy adult volunteers aged 18 and above who have been vaccinated with two or three doses of inactivated or mRNA COVID-19 vaccine will be recruited.

SINOVAC obtained the sample of the Omicron variant in early December 2021 and then actively promoted research and development of its inactivated COVID-19 vaccine (Omicron specific strain). Preclinical research demonstrated that the vaccine is safe and effective in animals. The Omicron strain booster immunization clinical trial was then approved by the HKU GHK Institutional Review Board (IRB).