Tianjin, October 25, 2022 - CanSino Biologics Inc. (“CanSinoBIO” of “the Company”) (SSE: 688185, HKEX: 06185) today announced that its Recombinant COVID-19 Vaccine (Adenovirus Type 5 Vector) for Inhalation (trade name: Convidecia Air™) has been approved by the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council of China for inclusion in Shanghai’s booster vaccination program starting from October 26, 2022, marking the start of the rollout of the world’s first inhaled COVID-19 vaccine, Convidecia Air™.

Adults aged 18 and above, who have been primed with two shots of inactivated vaccines or one shot of Convidecia™ after a six-month interval, can opt to receive one dose of Convidecia Air™ as a booster free of charge.

Convidecia Air™ was approved for clinical trial application in March 2021. In 2022, the vaccine received the Emergency Use Authorization granted by the National Medical Products Administration of China (“NMPA”) as a booster dose. Convidecia™, the intramuscular version of CanSinoBIO’s COVID-19 vaccine, received conditional marketing authorization in China in February 2021 and became the first and only adenovirus-vectored vaccine to be included in the country’s heterologous vaccination program in February 2022.

Based on CanSinoBIO's adenovirus vector technological platform of the intramuscular version and Aerogen's proprietary vibrating mesh aerosol drug delivery technology, Convidecia Air has proven to be an innovative solution that provides safe and effective protection for people through a needle-free, painless and non-invasive delivery without any serious adverse events observed^[1].

A recent study^[2] showed that using Convidecia Air™ as a heterologous booster generated much stronger immune responses than those induced by a homologous inactivated vaccine booster. Additionally, the inhaled vaccine could enhance immunogenicity compared with an intramuscular injection of Convidecia™ as a booster. With only one-fifth of the dosage of the intramuscular version, the inhaled version trains the immune memory function of the body by imitating the natural infection of the virus, which not only stimulates humoral and cellular immunity, but also efficiently induces mucosal immunity to achieve triple protection and effectively contain the infection and block the transmission. 

[1] Source: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(21)00396-0/fulltext

[2] Source: https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2213-2600%2822%2900087-X