China Authorizes Newest COVID-19 Vaccine

WestVac Biopharma and West China Medical Center, Sichuan University, today announced Coviccine® Trivalent XBB.1.5-Recombinant COVID-19 Trivalent (XBB.1.5+BA.5+Delta) Protein Vaccine (Sf9 cell) was authorized by relevant authorities in China.

As of June 8, 2023, this is the first COVID-19 vaccine in the world authorized against XBB descendent lineages of the beta coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. 

WestVac leveraged the rapid response of the insect cell expression platform in constructing the vector for Coviccine, which is of high purity and high quality for human use.

The subunit vaccine antigen is designed based on the structure of the targeting S-RBD and HR proteins of the COVID-19 subvariants XBB.1.5 and BA.5 and self-assembled into stable trimeric protein particles with squalene-based oil-in-water emulsion adjuvant added after purification and mixing.

This novel adjuvant significantly raises the titer of neutralizing antibodies, enabling the trimeric protein vaccine to induce a higher T-cell immune response.

Recent studies have shown that Coviccine induced a high titer of neutralizing antibodies against multiple subvariants.

Previously, the WHO Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition advised on May 18, 2023, that new formulations of COVID-19 vaccines should aim to induce antibody responses that neutralize XBB descendent lineages.

As of the end of May 2023, the XBB family of variants accounted for about 90% of infections in China.

And in the U.S., over 90% of all variants are from the XBB family.