After a six-month hiatus, the infection rate of the novel coronavirus has once again risen; at the same time, the main domestic strain has evolved into the XBB series variant. For vulnerable groups such as the elderly and those with underlying health conditions, is there a better vaccine with enhanced protective efficacy? This is their key weapon for more secure response to XBB. On June 1st, Aimei Vaccine announced the mid-term analysis of the protective efficacy and safety of the self-developed Omicron BA.5 mRNA vaccine in China, showing that the highest protective efficacy reached 80.68%.

Of particular note is that the vaccine under development demonstrates superior protective effects against the current primary domestic variant XBB. The announcement indicates that since the end of April 2023, during the prevalence of the XBB variant, the standalone calculated protection rate reached 80.68%, with a 95% confidence interval ranging from 55.98% to 92.74%.

In other words, through real-world testing, the Aimei vaccine's in-development Omicron BA.5 mRNA vaccine has shown good protective effects against the XXB strain. This is currently the first domestically confirmed mRNA vaccine effective against XBB.

Recently, Aimei Vaccine's major production site for mRNA vaccines, Aimei Rong'an Innovative Virus Vaccine Industrial Base, has completed the installation of production facilities and all production lines. Hu Dedong, Vice General Manager of Aimeiei Rong'an, stated that it is expected that the mRNA vaccine production workshop in the factory will have an annual production capacity of over 200 million doses.

This is no small investment. On the other hand, there are indications that some COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers have quietly halted production.

On one side, there are halts in production, and on the other side, Aimeiei Vaccine has established an annual production capacity of 200 million doses of mRNA vaccine. Does the COVID-19 vaccine still have market prospects? What gives Aimeiei Vaccine the confidence to continue its "soaring"?

Currently, Aimei Vaccine has two major vaccine production bases in Ningbo, Zhejiang: Aimei Weixin and Aimei Rong'an. The former is mainly responsible for producing bacterial vaccines and combination vaccines, while the latter primarily produces innovative vaccines such as mRNA vaccines and human diploid cell rabies vaccines.

First domestically confirmed mRNA vaccine effective against XBB

Hu Dedong stated that the core advantage of Aimei Vaccine's mRNA COVID-19 vaccine lies in its protective effect against the XBB variant. "This is the first mRNA COVID-19 vaccine that has presented clinical protective efficacy data against the XBB variant."

At the end of March this year, the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine (SYS6006) by Shiyao Group and the tetravalent S trimer protein vaccine by Shenzhou Cell were included in domestic emergency use. Both companies mentioned that these vaccines demonstrated good protective efficacy against the Omicron variant. The latest domestic epidemic surveillance results show that the XBB series variant has become the main prevalent strain in China.

Further data indicates that the proportion of XBB series variant cases among local cases has grown from 0.2% in mid-February 2023 to 95.2% by late May. Reports suggest that the transmissibility and immune evasion capability of the XBB series variants are stronger than earlier prevalent Omicron variants.

Aimei Vaccine first announced its progress in developing mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in early 2022, stating that the company was developing mRNA COVID-19 vaccines targeting the Delta and Omicron variants. The short development cycle of mRNA vaccines allowed the company to continue developing new categories of mRNA vaccines if necessary.

This time, the in-development mRNA vaccine announced by Aimei Vaccine has shown good protective efficacy against the XBB variant.

Platform capabilities may be replicable

In the production building of Aimei Rong'an, the entire mRNA vaccine production workshop spans five to six stories high, divided into different processes, each with varying cleanliness requirements. Due to the high safety requirements of the production process, some production equipment interfaces are equipped with sensors. If there is any equipment abnormality, the sensor will immediately issue a warning.

"In addition to being applicable to the production of the new coronavirus mRNA vaccine, the entire production equipment can also be used to produce other types of mRNA vaccines," said Hu Dedong. Due to the different key technologies of various mRNA vaccines, the key lies in the modification and design of the pathogen sequence, with little difference in other production steps.

This could also indicate that after COVID-19, Aimei Vaccine's production line might play an even bigger role. However, Aimei Vaccine did not disclose further details about this.

Additionally, Aimei Vaccine's confidence in expanding production capacity may stem from its own "foundation"—referring to the company's revenue. According to Aimei Vaccine's 2022 annual report, as of the end of 2022, Aimei Vaccine had cash and cash equivalents of 656 million yuan. On the other hand, it is also based on the company's existing knowledge of vaccine production. Including Ningbo Rong'an, Aimei's four vaccine production enterprises are well-known domestic vaccine manufacturing companies, forming the foundation of Aimei's industrial strength.