Specifically targeting Omicron! How can the domestically produced "new" vaccine help us?

On April 26, Sinopharm Group China National Biotec Group's Omicron variant coronavirus inactivated vaccine received clinical approval from the National Medical Products Administration.

This means that the vaccine will enter the clinical trial stage. According to reports, the Omicron variant inactivated vaccine is expected to complete clinical trials and be gradually put into use in 3 to 4 months.

Why do we need a vaccine specifically for Omicron? When will the new vaccine be available? How will the new vaccine be administered and what will be the vaccination strategy?

Why is a specific Omicron vaccine needed?

As early as December last year, shortly after the Omicron variant appeared, the World Health Organization issued a warning: Preliminary evidence shows that the Omicron variant may reduce the effectiveness of the new crown vaccine, and people are at higher risk of repeated infection with this strain.

This suggestion was confirmed as Omicron gradually became the mainstream strain.

Regarding the question of how big the mutation span of the new coronavirus is before a new vaccine is needed, Zhang Yuntao, chief scientist and vice president of Sinopharm China National Biotec Group, told reporters: When the neutralizing activity of the neutralizing antibodies produced by the prototype strain against Omicron is greatly reduced, a new vaccine needs to be developed. Current research results show that the neutralizing activity of neutralizing antibodies against Omicron is indeed greatly reduced.

Therefore, vaccine researchers at home and abroad are looking for effective vaccines against Omicron to improve the protective effect of vaccines. However, so far, foreign countries have not achieved better results in immunogenicity than the original strain when developing a new generation of Omicron vaccines.

The Ozhu vaccine is here. Does that mean the original vaccine is no longer effective?

The Omicron variant COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for clinical trials and is expected to be approved for marketing in the near future. Does this mean that the COVID-19 vaccine we are currently receiving is no longer effective?

Zhang Yuntao said in response to a reporter's question that the newly developed Aozhuo does not completely negate the previous COVID-19 vaccine, and the first-generation COVID-19 vaccine administered earlier is still effective . It can also be seen in the outbreak of the epidemic in Hong Kong some time ago that the inactivated vaccine has a significant protective effect against severe illness and death, especially for people over 60 years old, so the original vaccine is still effective.

Is the Ozhu vaccine the fourth shot?

How will vaccination be done in the future?

The immunization procedure of my country's inactivated COVID-19 vaccine is "2 injections of full immunization + a third injection of booster immunization". **The clinical trial of the Aozhu vaccine is not designed as the fourth injection of the COVID-19 vaccine. **After obtaining the clinical approval issued by the National Medical Products Administration, the next step will be to conduct a sequential immunization clinical study in the form of a randomized, double-blind, cohort study in people aged 18 and above who have completed 2 or 3 injections of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Zhang Yuntao introduced that the upcoming Omicron vaccination will target two groups of people. One group is people who have received two and three doses of the inactivated new coronavirus vaccine. Subsequently, clinical research on the one and two doses of Omicron vaccination will be carried out.

In addition, the next step will be to directly vaccinate the new generation of vaccines in the blank population who have not received the new crown vaccine to observe the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine. If this part of the clinical study obtains reliable data, the blank population can be directly vaccinated with the new vaccine.

Are the contraindications to vaccination the same as before? Will they decrease?

Previously, during the COVID-19 vaccination process, some contraindications prevented some people from receiving the vaccine. Zhang Yuntao said that in terms of the current clinical scope involved, the contraindications of the Aozhu vaccine are the same as those of the first-generation inactivated vaccine, and there are no other special matters.

However, after the first generation of vaccines were widely used, China Biologic has carried out corresponding clinical research in people with diabetes, hypertension, AIDS, autoimmune deficiency diseases and organ damage. The contraindications should gradually decrease in the future.

As the new coronavirus continues to mutate in the future, will we need to continue developing new vaccines?

Zhang Yuntao said that it depends on how the variants mutate in the future. In fact, the VOC (VOCs of concern) variants announced by the World Health Organization have appeared for several generations, such as Beta, Delta, and today's Omicron strain. The neutralizing antibodies produced by the first-generation vaccine against the original strains have a good neutralizing effect on Beta and Delta, so there is no need to develop new vaccines. However, the neutralizing efficacy of the neutralizing antibodies produced by the first-generation vaccine against the Omicron strain has decreased or decreased significantly. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a new Omicron vaccine to produce better neutralizing antibodies to prevent diseases caused by the Omicron strain.

Comprehensive sources: Xinhua News Agency, Xinhuanet, Science and Technology Daily, CCTV Finance, China Biological WeChat public account, etc.