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Vaccine developed by BDA firm gains WHO pre-qualification

Updated: 2022-03-03

The Sabin strain (Vero cell) inactivated poliomyelitis vaccine (sIPV) developed by Sinopharm Group's Beijing Institute of Biological Products has been pre-qualified by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Poliomyelitis, commonly known as polio, is still a major threat to public health in several countries. 

Since the 1960s, China has used oral medication, namely oral polio vaccine (OPV), to conduct multiple rounds of immunization, which significantly reduced the incidence of polio.

However, OPV is not perfect and can easily produce polio vaccine-derived virus (VDPV), which poses a safety hazard. 

To solve this, WHO proposed strengthening routine immunization and stopping the use of OPV by requiring countries to introduce at least one dose of inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) in polio immunization programs in 2015 while advocating for polio immunization to be gradually changed to a three-dose IPV vaccination schedule.

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Vaccine packaging line [Photo/kfqgw.beijing.gov.cn]

The Beijing Institute of Biological Products has completely independent intellectual property rights to sIPV, and has obtained five patent authorizations, one production approval, and first prize of the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association Science and Technology Awards. 

Currently, sIPV, bivalent oral polio vaccine (bOPV), and COVID-19 vaccine developed by the institute have all passed WHO pre-qualification, and its yellow fever vaccine (YFV) has passed WHO on-site inspection. The institute plans to develop and export more medicines in the future.