A new COVID-19 vaccine "made in Sichuan" is currently in Phase III clinical trials and is applying to be marketed as soon as possible, according to the Conference on the Work Promotion of National Facility for Translational Medicine (Sichuan) and West China Translational Medicine Forum held on July 18.

　　The Sichuan-made vaccine is a recombinant protein vaccine developed by a team led by Academician Wei Yuquan. Based on the precise design of structural biology, it targets the binding site of the virus and human cells. It uses insect cells to propagate in large numbers in the culture medium, introduces the gene of novel coronavirus into insect cells, and produces high-quality recombinant vaccine proteins.

　　According to Wei Yuquan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy of West China Hospital of Sichuan University, the Sichuan-made vaccine is undergoing Phase III clinical trials in Kenya, Indonesia, Mexico and other countries, and Phase I and II clinical trials are under way in Japan. Currently, the pandemic is still raging across the world, and diverse variants of the virus have appeared. The clinical trial data show that the Sichuan-made vaccine has great advantages in preventing these variants.

　　The vaccine is mainly designed for adults around the age of 18 to 60 and requires three doses of injection.