On Mar. 17, 2020, CanSino Biologics announced that its recombinant novel Coronavirus Vaccine (Adenovirus Type 5 Vector) candidate (‘Ad5-nCoV’), co-developed with Beijing Institute of Biotechnology (BIB), had been approved to enter into Phase 1 Clinical Trial. It was currently the first novel coronavirus vaccine for COVID-19 that made to this stage in China.

The vaccine candidate is based upon CanSinoBIO’s adenovirus-based viral vector vaccine technology platform, which had also been successfully applied to develop the globally innovative vaccine against Ebola virus infection. Results from preclinical animal studies of ﾓAd5-nCoV showed that the vaccine candidate induced a strong immune response in animal models. The preclinical animal safety studies demonstrated a good safety profile.