On Jun. 20, 2019, CanSino Biologics announced that it had received the National Medical Products Administration’s (NMPA) permission for its PCV13i, a candidate 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, by to start human clinical trials.

PCV13i was the company’s proprietary vaccine candidate under development for protection against invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). It contains capsular polysaccharides from 13 pneumococcal serotypes that are responsible for over 80% of the IPD among children under five years of age in China, according to Expert Consensus on Immunization for Prevention of Pneumococcal Disease in China published in 2017.