In what is believed to be a world first, China’s commercial capital of Shanghai this week introduced a new type of Covid-19 vaccine that is inhaled rather than administered via injection.
Chinese regulators approved the vaccine, produced by Chinese pharmaceutical firm CanSino Biologics (6185.HK), for use as a booster in September.
And now the first people are starting to receive the vaccine, which is inhaled via the mouth from a vessel that looks like a take-out coffee cup with a short mouthpiece.
“Our body’s first line of defence is the mucus membrane of our respiratory system, we want that to be directly stimulated to improve immunity and using the inhaled vaccine does that,” Dr Zhao Hui, chief medical officer at Shanghai United Family Hospital Pudong, told Reuters.
His hospital is among those administering the new vaccine, which will be used as well as regular injected shots.—Reuters
