BEIJING – Chinese vaccine developer Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise plans to start a large trial for its nasal spray-based Covid-19 vaccine candidate next month, according to a clinical trial registration record.
The company aims to recruit 40,000 adult participants for the Phase 3 trial, according to an entry posted on the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry yesterday.
The adults will be given two doses of the Beijing Wantai vaccine candidate or a placebo at a two-week interval, it said.
The record did not specify in how many countries Beijing Wantai will run the trial.
But, it said an ethics committee in the Philippines has approved the study, clearing some hurdles for potentially carrying out the trial in the Southeast Asian nation.
A Beijing Wantai representative said the registration record does not mean the company has formally started the Phase 3 trial.
The firm is awaiting further documents from authorities, said the rep, but did not specify from which countries.
An alternative to the common injection in the arm, the spray vaccine can trigger specific immune responses in airways by mimicking the natural infection of a respiratory virus.
The candidate uses a weakened influenza virus to ferry the genetic information of part of Covid-19. – Reuters, September 23, 2021
