Sinovac Biotech Ltd., a leading provider of biopharmaceutical products in China, has announced that the company has obtained approval to conduct a human clinical trial on an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 (commonly referred to as COVID-19) vaccine candidate.

The vaccine development commenced at the end of January 2020. Sinovac scientists have raced to complete comprehensive preclinical studies in partnership with leading academic research institutes in China.

As part of this work, an animal challenge study has shown that the vaccine candidate protects animals without antibody-dependent enhancement (or ADE). In addition, the vaccine candidate can neutralize virus strains from different countries, which supports the potential of using the vaccine to prevent the spread of the disease globally.