CanSino

Chinese vaccine company CanSinoBio has developed the vaccine CanSino using a viral vector. This method uses a vector, i.e. a different virus from SARS-CoV-2, to enter a cell and infect it. In this way, it uses the cellular machinery to produce the spike protein, present in this coronavirus, to generate antibodies.

In May and July 2020, the manufacturers published the results of phases I and II of their clinical trial in the British scientific journal The Lancet. In early November last year, they announced the start of phase III trial in Mexico, where they estimated to recruit 15,000 volunteers. By then it had already completed two other phase III trials in Russia and Pakistan. They have also been carried out in Argentina and Chile. In total, 40.000 volunteers participated in this phase, which showed an efficacy of 65,7%.

The CanSino vaccine is administered in a single dose and, in addition to China, Mexico, Hungary and Pakistan have authorised its use.

The most commonly reported side effects in the clinical trials are pain at the injection site, headache, fever and tiredness. No severe reactions have been reported.

CanSino vaccine can be stored between 2ºC and 8ºC, although the manufacturer has not specified for how long.