Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The race to find a Covid-19 vaccine continues to blow. The vaccine, which is thought to eliminate the pandemic from the face of the earth, has in fact become a new competition between countries in the world, China is no exception.
Quoted South China Morning Post, Friday (4/6) China is said to be trying to expand the development of a Covid-19 vaccine with 20 candidates in the clinical trial stage.
“China is first in the world in terms of the number of Covid-19 vaccines under development,” said Zheng Zhongwei, director of the Center for Medical Science and Technology Development of China’s National Health Commission.
However, he also acknowledged that currently the vaccines developed in that country still need further tests in several countries to get more optimal results. Of the 20 vaccines, he said only eight had been approved for phase 3 trials overseas.
“But we have to admit that our vaccine companies are still lagging behind when it comes to conducting international clinical trials,” he added.
“We still have shortcomings in the basic research of some new technologies,” he said.
According to Unicef, the United States tops the list as home to 110 Covid-19 vaccine developers, followed by 41 in China and 22 in Canada.
The UN agency said producers from different countries might work together on one vaccine and some companies might have multiple vaccines in development.
China has led the global supply of Covid-19 vaccines, with two of its vaccines successfully registered for emergency use by the WHO. In addition, China has provided more than 350 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine abroad as of Monday (31/5/2021) and has provided 723.5 million doses nationally as of Thursday (3/6/2021).
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