(Yicai Global) Aug. 24 -- China is to permit clinical trials of a Covid-19 vaccine grown in insect cells on humans. This is the first time that the country has embraced this technology, which is much cheaper than using mammalian cells and will accelerate large-scale production of the vaccine.

Vaccine developer West China Hospital of Sichuan University has introduced the Covid-19 gene into insect cells to produce high-quality recombinant immune protein which it will then purify and refine into a vaccine, the Chengdu municipal government said on its Weibo account on Aug. 22.

The team has previously experimented with monkeys and the results have shown that the vaccine can prevent monkeys from being infected with Covid-19 with no obvious side effects, according to a paper published in the leading British academic journal Nature on July 29.

Insects have been used before in the West to develop recombinant protein vaccines that can be safely used on humans, such as cervical cancer and influenza vaccines, but this is China’s first attempt to do so.

The academic circle in general objects to using insect cells because of the limitations and uncertainties involved and thus clinical trials mainly use mammalian cells, several experts told Yicai Global.

Insect cells are quite different from mammalian cells and their safety and effectiveness must be further verified, a manager from a pharmaceutical company in Chengdu said.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Kim Taylor