Health officials recently granted permission to Sinovac Biotech Ltd., a top supplier of biopharmaceutical products for China, to start human clinical trials to test the company’s Sabin Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) candidate.
Now, Sinovac is determining its clinical trial protocol by using the clinical trial license. The trials are scheduled to start in early 2016 and should be finished by 2018.
The purpose of the trials is to determine the immunogenicity and safety of the vaccine, as well as the proper dosage.
“As an inactivated polio vaccine different from conventional Salk-IPV, the clinical trial approval of our sIPV vaccine candidate represents a significant achievement,”
Sinovac Chairman, CEO and President Weidong Yin said. “As we progress closer to commercialization, this vaccine is expected to open up additional opportunities in China’s public market and also introduce overseas expansion opportunities by potential purchasing programs from international organizations.
“While national governments collaborate to promote IPV under the [World Health Organization’s] Polio Eradication & Endgame Strategic Plan, the world still faces limited production capability. With Sinovac’s fully integrated vaccine capabilities and our commitment to providing children around the world with our vaccines, we are dedicated to making efforts for polio eradication both in China and around the world. In addition, the vaccine also contributes to our pipeline products portfolio diversification by providing us the opportunity to develop sIPV related combo vaccine in the future.”
