An inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by China has shown promising trial result as it is safe and generates an immune response, according to data from clinical trials published in The Journal of the American Medical Association this week.

The results showed that the vaccine effectively induced neutralising antibodies in the volunteers and demonstrated good immunogenicity — the ability of a substance to trigger an immune response, reports Xinhua.

The research paper provided an interim analysis of the phase-1 and phase-2 clinical trials of an inactivated COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products under the China National Biotec Group, affiliated to Sinopharm, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Research involved data on 320 healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 59. Of them, 96 participated in phase-1 clinical trials and 224 in phase-2 trials.

The research reported geometric mean titers of neutralising antibodies in the volunteers, who were separated into low-dose, medium-dose and high-dose groups. The paper also evaluated the safety of the vaccine, reporting that no serious adverse reactions were observed.

The most common adverse reaction was pain at the injection site, followed by fever, both of which were mild and self-limiting.