China's COVID-19 vaccine shows 'no side effects' in Russian trials

BEIJING -- China's candidate coronavirus vaccine caused no side effects among recruits in Moscow as part of large-scale clinical trials, reported Russian English-language newspaper The Moscow Times.

Russia approved Phase 3 trials of the Chinese vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics, a Chinese high-tech biopharmaceutical company, and a research team with the Academy of Military Sciences last month.

"At the moment, the volunteers are doing well. None of them have shown any side effects," Petrovax, the Russian pharmaceutical company working with the vaccine's Chinese developers, announced Monday in a press release.

Petrovax said it has received more than 3,000 applications to get the Ad5-nCoV vaccine so far.

The study's participants will be under direct supervision for nearly a month, with four interim face-to-face examinations, and will undergo a control examination after six months, Petrovax said.

The Russian company said it expects preliminary results sometime in November, according to the Interfax news agency.

Once Russia registers the Chinese vaccine, Petrovax said it will be able to produce more than 4 million doses per month this year and 10 million doses per month in 2021.

China is actively conducting international cooperation on the development of drugs and vaccines against COVID-19.

CanSino announced plans last month to launch Phase 3 trials of the vaccine in Saudi Arabia involving about 5,000 subjects.