Chinese pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm Group Co., Ltd. says it’s working on the development of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, with domestic experts telling state-owned media that a product could hit the market within several months.
Sinopharm announced on 15 February in Beijing that its subsidiary the Sinopharm National Vaccine & Serum Institute (国药中国生物研究院) had launched efforts to research and develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus.
Sinopharm said that it had already completed gene sequence synthesis, and was currently undertaking work on recombinant plasmid construction and bacteria selection.
Sinopharm’s Wuhan and Beijing-based subsidiaries are also undertaking research into the development of a coronavirus vaccine, and are currently in the process of viral cultivation and the “development of novel coronavirus inactive vaccines on a 24-hour basis.”
An unnamed figure from Chinese medical authorities told the Beijing Evening News that a vaccine could reach the market within several months.
“From viral isolation and cultivation to clinical trials, to examination and review by the relevant state authorities, the process from the research and development of a vaccine to reaching the market will take at least several months at the quickest,” said the official.
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