China’s CanSino Biologics advancing its SARS-CoV-2 vaccine to a Phase II clinical trial making this vaccine candidate lead contender in the global race for an approved vaccine product

CanSino Bio’s Ad5-nCoV is the most advanced DNA vaccine candidate at the moment against COVID-19. The candidate completed Phase 1 trial and the company apparently enrolling patients for a Phase II trial. The Chinese vaccine has been named as a top contender by the World Health Organization.

The Vaccine uses adenovirus to deliver the DNA for a coronavirus protein. The vaccine is a hybrid of “live virus” and “recombinant protein” being used to generate protein antigens to trigger the antibodies production against Corona Virus in the patient's body.

Ad5-nCoV is a genetically engineered vaccine candidate with the replication-defective adenovirus type 5 as the vector to express SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which intends to be used to prevent COVID-19.

The Phase I clinical trial was announced in March 2020 and can be seen in the Chinese clinical trial registry. The company recently published the study in the U.S. clinical trials registry as an active, enrolling, Phase II, randomized, double-blinded and placebo-controlled clinical trial in healthy adults over 18 years of age. The study was designed by the sponsors to evaluate the immunogenicity and safety of the Ad5-nCoV vaccine—which encodes for a full-length spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2.

The company is planning to enrol 500 patients in Wuhan, and that the highest dose from the Phase I protocol has been dropped. 250 people will get the Phase I middle dose, 125 will get the low dose, and 125 will get a placebo injection.

According to reports, CanSino Bio is in an alliance with the government-backed Academy of Military Medical Sciences’ Institute of Biotechnology. The private-public partnership sought to progress the adenovirus type-5 vector-based recombinant SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (Ad5-nCoV) soon to protect from COVID-19.