China has approved its first domestically developed messenger RNA vaccine against COVID-19, CSPC Pharmaceutical Group said Wednesday, a major achievement in a country that has declined to use Western COVID-19 shots to support domestic research.
China, whose home-grown vaccines are seen as less effective than the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA shots, has been racing to develop vaccines using mRNA technology since early 2020.
The long-awaited approval comes as infections have fallen sharply across China since it suddenly dropped its strict "zero-COVID" curbs in December, making the sales outlook for the newly approved vaccine moderate.