CanSino Biologics, Inc.

Not too long from now, you might be able to skip the pharmacy or your doctor’s office for certain vaccinations and instead visit an automated dispensing station for immediate self-administration. Instead of sticking yourself with a syringe, it’d be as easy as sipping from a cup. It might be less expensive than an intramuscular injection and even offer you better protection with fewer side effects. “We’ve tried to make it as easy as possible in the sense that our vaccination station has a user interface and it gives you on-screen instructions,” Aerogen Director of R&D, Science and Emerging Technologies Ronan MacLoughlin said in an interview. “… Like you’re filling a cup at McDonald’s, it fills up with air, you take that, you exhale, you inhale one long, slow, deep breath, hold for four seconds and you’re done.” “The only limit is the potential for cross contamination between patients,” he continued. “Through our fixturing and our vaccination station — for which we got our patents granted on two weeks back, actually — we removed that risk.” Aerogen is the nebulizer manufacturer that developed the world’s first approved inhalable COVID-19 vaccine with biopharmaceutical company CanSinoBIO, which has been used on more than 30 million patients since 2022. Delivering that vaccine via inhalation needs just one-fifth of the dose used for an intramuscular injection, which means pharmaceutical manufacturers can inoculate five times as many people. “It’s going to open the floodgates for us, because we know that inhaled vaccines work,” MacLoughlin said. There’s much left to learn about inhalable vaccines, but MacLoughlin said his team has invested years and more than $150 million to get a head start on the devices that will deliver these next-gen drugs. “Given the school of hard knocks and the lessons we learned in our trials that didn’t do particularly well, as well as all the lessons that we’ve taken from device development at scale, drug-device-combination development and learning everything there is to know about aerosols and aerosol generation — we have 600 patents, and we have hundreds of clinical papers and bench studies that underpin our technology — we can now apply that to the vaccine space,” he said. “We’re unparalleled in that regard.” Designing drug-delivery devices for next-gen vaccines Inhalable vaccines have been studied for more than half a century, with research showing the potential for more efficient and effective inoculation. Until recently it’s just been easier and less expensive to administer vaccines orally or with an injection. But fear of needles is estimated to cause a significant share of people to avoid intramuscular injections, and in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, manufacturing capacity and cold chain distribution limited the supply of vaccines approved in the U.S. Taking the inhalable route, CanSinoBIO asked Aerogen for billions of its nebulizers at a price that wasn’t possible. Instead of developing a less expensive single-use nebulizer to deliver the new vaccine, Aerogen built a system to reuse the same nebulizer for hundreds or thousands of patients by dispensing the inhalable vaccine into a disposable plastic cup with a custom-designed lid. “The reason we went with a cup is because it was globally available. We didn’t need to make that and we don’t want to make that. … We will sell you our delivery system, but the cups — here’s the instructions. Make them yourself,” MacLoughlin said. “… It’s not just any old sippy cup. There’s a lot of engineering, a lot of IP around this. We did a huge amount of work and generated a lot of data very quickly. I could make subtle changes to it and make it a terrible device.” The smaller dose required for inhalable vaccines is another factor that lowers vaccination costs, not only for R&D but for scaled manufacturing and distribution. “When you’re getting five times as much out of a single facility because you’re getting that protection when you inhale it at one-fifth the dose, that opens up a whole new route,” MacLoughlin said. “I’m heavily involved now with a number of vaccine companies working on inhaled clinical studies and development and moving toward inhaled vaccine studies, and they can now spend money on doing the necessary validations to get to that first-in-human as opposed to trying to make loads of it beforehand.” Vibrating mesh nebulizers — as opposed to ultrasonic nebulizers — can nebulize and fully deliver doses as small as 5 microliters with specific droplet sizes for diseases where droplet size matters. “Influenza binds to sialic acid receptors — α2-6, α2-3, and α2-8 receptors — in your airways: α2-6 is primarily in your upper airways and some in the alveolar region, and α2-3 is really only in the lower airways, the alveolar region. So if you have an influenza that preferentially binds to α2-3, there’s no point in delivering to the upper airways. You have to get it into lower areas to bind and elicit that immune response,” he said. “That’s if it’s receptor-bound right. For something like tuberculosis, you’re looking to see T cell response and need to get it to where those T cells are. Depending on a huge number of different factors, that could be upper, lower or just everywhere.” There are pediatric design considerations as well. Researchers are studying the best route for RSV vaccinations in babies, which primarily breathe through their nose. “No matter what droplet size you put in there, their nose is going to filter out the bigger droplets, and all that’s going to get into their lungs is the small droplets,” MacLoughlin said. “So if you can start small, you bypass the losses in the upper airways and get down into the lungs.” Inhalable vaccines have potential applications beyond respiratory diseases. Vaccines inhaled and delivered to respiratory mucus can refer immunity to mucosal surfaces elsewhere in the body, like the GI tract. “Diabetes, cancer, the number of diseases that are vaccine preventable or treatable is ginormous,” MacLoughlin said. “The inhaled route may not be suitable for them all. However, they all have potential. And the beauty of it is you can get away with a very small dose. … We know that you can get inflected with influenza with as few as 10 individual viral particles being inhaled. So in theory, you could get away with as few as 10 vaccine particles to give you that protection.” “We are just at the beginning of a very exciting era,” he continued. “We now know what can be done, we know it can be done at scale, we know the technology exists where if we come up with this wonder vaccine it can actually be delivered.” Related: Nasal vaccine device design and regulatory need-to-knows ‘Collaborate or die’ MacLoughlin recounted helping a team working on a pneumococcal vaccine after their trials told them an inhalable drug wouldn’t work — or so they thought. He asked what device they used and if they had one handy, and when he turned it on he almost immediately felt the heat it generated. “What they’d used in the clinical trial cooked the vaccine. … there’s so many learnings that that vaccine developers haven’t had to think about. I think now we’re having these conversations more and more that we’ll certainly be in a position where we’ll see a lot more momentum in the next couple of years. … Maybe you’re looking for disease mitigation or injury mitigation or maybe just looking for transmission reduction. There’s so many levers that we can pull, and we’re still trying to figure out what the levers do.” More than ever, device and drug developers will need to consider human factors. MacLoughlin pointed to Mexico’s inhalable measles vaccine campaign in the 1980s. “It was a thundering success, an amazing success,” he said. “All these kids got full protection. The device, however, was not fit for purpose [because ] this particular device needed an air compressor that was really only ever found at car mechanics. … What you’re looking for is reliable, reproducible delivery of whatever it is in the real-world setting.” That might mean systems powered by solar or hand cranks for areas without reliable electricity, equipment that can be easily assembled out of low-cost materials like cardboard, or automation that minimizes the risk of a doctor — or patient — incorrectly administering the vaccine. “You need to maintain flexibility because not everywhere is in the First World, not everywhere has power, not everybody can read,” he said. “Your usability, your user and human factors come into it in a huge way [to ensure] your product is ultimately going to be used.” Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic started, MacLoughlin recalls device development insights from unusual places, like a wind turbine manufacturer that wanted to manufacture a basic ventilator when they were in short supply. “Those guys had a completely different view on things and some of the assumptions and thinking that they brought to their project, we were able to apply to other projects,” he said. Even his own son, Eoin, contributed to inhalable vaccine research when he was just 5 years old by designing a simple mask for testing inhalable drugs on pigs. “Pig models are very, very good for humans because we share a very similar immune response and airway geometries — way better than mice and ferrets and rats and golden hamsters and all that, which are valuable but not as good,” MacLoughlin said. “Eoin designed a face mask that’s been used in hundreds of trials now for pigs, teasing out the understanding of how inhaled vaccines work or don’t work.” “The lesson from that is you don’t need to be a genius, you don’t need to be any more than 5 years old,” he continued. “You just need to be able to sit down and logically think through something and be willing to accept feedback. Collaborate or die.” Related: This simple, needle-free COVID vaccination device might stop transmission

DUBAI, UAE, Feb. 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- CanSino Biologics Inc. (CanSinoBIO or the Company), a leading Chinese vaccine innovator, has been invited to the 2025 World Government Summit in Dubai from February 11-13. Dr Yu Xuefeng, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer , along with Ms Wang Jing, Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Director, showcased the Company's pioneering technologies and public health strategies during this prestigious event. Continue Reading The 12th edition of the World Government Summit (WGS 2025) brings together influential leaders, heads of state, and tech visionaries from 140 countries to collaborate on global progress over the next decade. The summit focuses on addressing rapid changes, evaluating humanity's progress, identifying improvement opportunities, and empowering future generations through effective governance and sustainability. CanSinoBIO's participation in the summit represents a significant milestone in its global expansion, highlighting its commitment to global public health. By engaging with global leaders, the Company aims to showcase its growing influence, strengthen its biopharma position, and drive innovation and collaboration for a positive global impact. Driving Global Health Solutions CanSinoBIO positions itself as a global vaccine provider rooted in China, dedicated to offering innovative, high-quality, and affordable vaccines worldwide. Over the past sixteen years, CanSinoBIO has established an industry system that meet international standards, and leveraged five advanced technology platforms to develop dozens of innovative vaccine products targeting over ten infectious diseases. "CanSinoBIO is honored to stand as the exclusive representative of Chinese biotechnology companies at the conference," said Dr. Yu Xuefeng. "Our participation in this global platform underscores our dedication to advancing public health solutions and engaging with our partners worldwide to build a healthier and more sustainable future. Moving forward, we will persist in developing a globally competitive pipeline for novel vaccines, such as inhaled tuberculosis vaccine, PBPV and VLP-Polio vaccine." Enhance Global Partnerships for Improved Global Health CanSinoBIO actively builds global partnerships to boost local vaccine production and reduce vaccine disparities. Since 2019, it has expanded its international presence by strengthening its commercial team, increasing production capacity, and partnering with countries in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Additionally, Menhycia®, the Company's quadrivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine, has been granted Halal Decree by the Assessment Institute for Foods, Drugs and Cosmetics of Majelis Ulama Indonesia, which is a good reference for the Muslim world. CanSinoBIO has also secured Halal Decree for multiple vaccine products, making vaccines more accessible and affordable for people in the MENA region and beyond. This initiative contributes positively to the global public health system. CanSinoBIO has developed five advanced technological platforms and established a rich portfolio of pipeline products that prevent more than ten diseases, including meningitis, pneumonia, pertussis, diphtheria, tetanus, COVID-19, tuberculosis, shingles, Ebola virus disease etc. Additionally, the Company has multiple globally innovative vaccine products in clinical trial stage, such as its protein-based pneumococcal vaccine (PBPV) and recombinant polio vaccine (VLP-Polio). The PBPV is not serotype-dependent and has broader coverage (at lease 98% coverage of pnemococcal strains), highlighting the potential public health value of this vaccine.. Furthermore, VLP-Polio, a non-infectious polio vaccine that does not rely on live viruses, has secured $19 million in project funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and is endorsed by the World Health Organization as a preferred vaccine for the future eradication of polio. Moving forward, CanSinoBIO looks forward to continuing its collaboration with global partners to address the challenges posed by infectious diseases, fulfilling its social and international responsibilities, and contributing to the advancement of global public health. SOURCE CanSinoBIO WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM? 440k+ Newsrooms & Influencers 9k+ Digital Media Outlets 270k+ Journalists Opted In GET STARTED

At the World Congress on Lung Cancer in September 2024, Kangfang Biotics released Evoxil monotherapy (PD-1/VEGF bispecial antibody) and Merck Pabolizumab monotherapy in the first-line treatment of PD-L1 expression positive (PD-L1 Key data from a registered Phase III clinical study (HARMONi-2/AK112-303) of locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with TPS≥1%. Two months later, Merck also introduced a PD-1/VEGF bisspecific antibody: LM-299. In addition to Merck, many well-known pharmaceutical companies have also invested in the field of PD-(L)1 dual antibody. In recent years, there have been frequent deals in this area, with Chinese biotech companies becoming the main transferers. PD-1 and VEGF are often up-regulated and co-expressed in solid tumors. Anti-vegf drugs have synergistic effects with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) in promoting tumor vascular normalization and stimulating immune activation. Kangfang's remarkable achievements in the HARMONi-2 study confirmed that PD-(L)1/VEGF double antibody has the potential to replace PD-1 monoclonal antibody. Eboxizumab is currently approved in China for use in combination with pemetrexed and carboplatin for the treatment of EGFR mutation-positive locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous NSCLC patients who have progressed after treatment with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI). A marketing application has also been filed for the first-line treatment of ivoximab in patients with PD-L1 positive (TPS≥1%) NSCLC. Other clinically advanced PD-(L)1/VEGF pipelines are almost all from China, which has triggered a rush to authorize domestic PD-(L)1/VEGF drugs to the sea. However, PD-1 monoclonal antibody still faces problems such as low response rate, safety and drug resistance, so the market is full of expectations for the development of a new generation of immunotherapy. At present, PD-1/VEGF double antibody has been the first to achieve a breakthrough, and we look forward to more exciting progress in this field in the future.