At 9 am on August 29th, the first recombinant protein COVID-19 vaccine produced by insect cells in China was injected into volunteers.
A recombinant protein COVID-19 vaccine was approved by the national clinical trial
Science and Technology Daily, Chengdu, August 23rd (Li Di reporter Sheng Li) The reporter learned from west china hospital that the recombinant protein COVID-19 vaccine developed by the State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy in our hospital was approved by National Medical Products Administration for clinical trial on the 21st. The vaccine targets SARS-CoV-2, and uses its spike protein receptor binding domain (S-RBD) to generate neutralizing antibodies to stop the virus from infecting human cells.
The vaccine is based on the mass propagation of insect cells in the culture medium, and the gene of the new coronavirus is introduced into the insect cells. Factory? High-quality recombination vaccines protein is produced and refined and purified. This technology is easy to be put into the market on a large scale. It is reported that the recombinant protein vaccine produced by insects has been marketed in Europe and America, and its safety in human body has been verified.
The related research paper of this recombinant protein COVID-19 vaccine was published in the journal Nature on July 29th. According to the paper, it was found in animal experiments such as monkeys that the vaccine had a good protective effect against SARS-CoV-2 infection, and no obvious side effects were found.
In April this year, west china hospital and Chengdu High-tech Zone Bio-City and the research team established Chengdu Wesker Biomedical Co., Ltd., and are planning and designing a production line with an annual output of hundreds of millions of doses, which will realize the domestic independent research and development of a complete set of equipment. At present, the R&D team is actively promoting the clinical trial of the vaccine and settling in Chengdu High-tech Zone to realize industrialization. In addition to using insect cells to produce COVID-19 vaccine, the company also uses insect cell technology to produce rabies vaccine, influenza vaccine and herpes virus vaccine, etc., and has developed more than 2 innovative immunotherapy products such as various bacterial vaccines and tumor vaccines, and obtained more than 4 patents for related products and technologies.