China’s National Medical Products Administration has approved the emergency use and booster dose of an inhalable vaccine against COVID-19, the first of its kind authorized worldwide. The company CanSino Biologics has been in charge of manufacturing it and has not yet announced the dates on which it will be available to the public.
This drug, which does not need a needle, has the advantage that it is easier to store and distribute than others that require a specific temperature to maintain its effects or even a health professional who knows how to administer it. With this new vaccine, everything is simplified, since it is received in the mouth through a spray nebulizer at a fifth of the dose of the version injected intramuscularly, and can effectively induce comprehensive immune protection in response to SARS-CoV -2 with just one breath.
Regarding the efficacy of the drug, called Convidecia Air (recombinant COVID-19 vaccine – adenovirus type 5 vector – ), the company has revealed that a study published in July 2021 in The Lancet magazine showed that its inhalation was capable of inducing a strong antibody response against SARS-CoV-2, which could protect against developing the disease in a serious or fatal way.
A booster method for injectable COVID-19 vaccines
“Studies published in The Lancet indicated that Convidecia Air can induce strong humoral, cellular and mucosal immunity to achieve triple protection and effectively contain the infection and spread of the virus,” they highlight from the manufacturing company.
Four weeks after inhaling the new vaccine, 92.5% of the participants who received it developed antibodies against omicron
In July of this year they published a preliminary study indicating that people who received a booster dose of the inhaled Convidecia Air vaccine after two doses of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine developed more antibodies than those who were given three injections of Sinovac. Furthermore, four weeks after the inhaled booster, 92.5% of the participants had developed neutralizing antibodies against the omicron variant.
CanSino’s vaccine works in a similar way to vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca. It uses a harmless virus called adenovirus to carry the instructions needed to convert the spike proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus into cells, so the body is able to create antibodies against them.
This new vaccine will join the eight that have already been approved in the country, all injectable and locally manufactured. And it is that the country must authorize any foreign vaccine, including the most common and effective, such as Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna.
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