China is set to join the bandwagon against Ebola virus, as a Chinese biotech firm plans to embark on mass producing Ebola vaccines. The announcement came after the disease, which has killed more than 11,000 people, is reported to dwindle.
Tianjin CanSino Biotechnology Inc. is said to invest $315.14 million to create a facility in Tianjin city, which is located in the northeastern region of the country. A company official has told Reuters that this place will be the location for the mass production.
Although the exact start date for the manufacture has not yet been confirmed, the anticipated year of the facility's completion will be around 2017-2018.
Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that the vaccine was developed by a group of biotech scientists from the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences. The vaccine was derived from the 2014 mutant gene type and is in freeze-dried powder form, which is said to exude stability for a minimum of two weeks under temperatures of up to 37 degrees Celsius or 99 degrees Fahrenheit.
Experts said that the vaccine is appropriate for the tropical weather conditions of West African nations, where the fatal virus has caused a widespread outbreak since 2014.
China gave the green light to the experimental drug for its clinical trials, which was carried out in December 2014. The approval was said to have placed China among the global leaders in vaccine development to cure the disease.
In 2015, the cases of Ebola plummeted significantly. During the early part of October, no new recorded cases were reported within a week in the three West African countries, where the significant outbreaks were noted - a first for the said nations since March 2014.
A successful Ebola vaccine has already been developed by Merck and NewLink Genetics, which exuded a 100 percent effectivity rate in a clinical trial in Guinea in July 2015.
U.S. company Johnson & Johnson had also began a clinical study in Sierra Leone earlier in October 2015. The said vaccine will come in a two-shot formulation.
China has offered to donate $120 million and 500 medical personnel and experts to affected nations since the Ebola outbreak started.
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