© Bloomberg Workers wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) walk past a perimeter wall of a neighborhood under lockdown due to Covid-19 in Shanghai, China, on Wednesday, March 30, 2022. Shanghai's lockdown will have even greater ramifications for China and the world than the already significant impact from the lockdown in the tech hub of Shenzhen, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

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© Bloomberg Workers wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) walk past a perimeter wall of a neighborhood under lockdown due to Covid-19 in Shanghai, China, on Wednesday, March 30, 2022. Shanghai's lockdown will have even greater ramifications for China and the world than the already significant impact from the lockdown in the tech hub of Shenzhen, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

A Chinese company said it’s received approval to start clinical trials of a Covid-19 vaccine based on mRNA technology, while local media reported that another domestic company has applied to start a similar trial.

CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd. has been approved by China’s medical product regulator to begin a trial of an COVID-19 vaccine named “SYS6006,” it said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The company said pre-clinical studies demonstrated the vaccine can help neutralize against the omicron variant of coronavirus. It does not need to be stored at below-freezing temperatures, the company said.

China has inoculated the majority of its population using domestically-made coronavirus vaccines based on older inactivated virus technology, but authorities have not approved any based on mRNA outside the cities of Hong Kong and Macau.

China is battling its worst coronavirus outbreak since early 2020 as the more infectious omicron variant spreads in large cities including Shanghai.

Separately, Shanghai-based Stemirna Therapeutics has applied to Chinese regulators to conduct a clinical trial of its mRNA Covid-19 vaccine, state-media reported.

The company has built production facilities capable of producing 400 million doses a year, the Cailian financial news service reported.

A Chinese mRNA vaccine developed by Walvax Biotechnology Co., Suzhou Abogen Biosciences Co. and the Chinese military has already entered clinical trials.

But that vaccine may fall short of the benefits generated by shots from Pfizer Inc., BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc., a study published in January showed.

China National Pharmaceutical Group Co., better known as Sinopharm, said Sunday its second-generation recombinant protein Covid-19 vaccine has received approval from Beijing for clinical trials. The improved vaccine has already been approved by the United Arab Emirates as a booster shot and enhances immune response to the coronavirus, the company said in December.

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