China’s first mRNA COVID-19 vaccine approved for emergency use

On March 22, 2023 China has approved, for emergency use, its first COVID-19 vaccine based on mRNA technology, 3 months after the country lifted strict ‘zero covid’ containment measures in Dec 2022, following massive lockdown protests.  The mRNA vaccine (SYS6006) was developed by CSPC Pharmaceutical Group, a Chinese firm based in the northern Chinese city of Shijiazhuang. [1]

The SYS6006 vaccine covers the Omicron subvariant “BA.5’s core mutation at the spike mutation positions”, the trials was done as a booster shot in previously vaccinated trial participants. [2]

Jin Dong-yan, a Hong Kong virologist, said “there is strong scientific evidence that mRNA vaccines do much better than non-MRA vaccines,”. “Until now, China has approved only inactivated vaccines made by Sinovac Biotech and Sinopharm Group, two Beijing-based drugmakers.”

A Chinese CDC official said in April 2021 that Chinese mRNA-based vaccines had “entered the clinical trial stage”. [3]