Inhaled COVID-19 Vaccine Launches in Shanghai

The city of Shanghai recently began administering Convidecia Air™, an inhalable COVID-19 vaccine, in what appears to be a world first, reported Weibo on October 25, 2022.

The Convidecia Air vaccine is presented as a mist that is inhaled through the mouth and is being offered as a booster dose for previously vaccinated adults.

“It was like drinking a cup of milk tea,” one Shanghai resident said in a related video.

“When I breathed it in, it tasted a bit sweet.”

CanSino Biologics Inc. also stated in a press release on October 25, 2022, that needle-free vaccines are easier to administer and appeals to certain people.

CanSinoBIO confirmed that its Recombinant COVID-19 Vaccine (Adenovirus Type 5 Vector) for Inhalation Convidecia Air™ had been approved by the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council of China for inclusion in Shanghai’s booster vaccination program starting from October 26, 2022.

A study published by the peer-review journal The Lancet on May 30, 2022, showed that using Convidecia Air™ as a heterologous booster generated much more robust immune responses than those induced by a homologous inactivated vaccine booster.

Additionally, the inhaled vaccine could enhance immunogenicity compared with an intramuscular injection of Convidecia™ as a booster. 

With only one-fifth of the dosage of the intramuscular version, the inhaled version trains the immune memory function of the body by imitating the natural infection of the virus, which not only stimulates humoral and cellular immunity.

But also efficiently induces mucosal immunity to achieve triple protection and effectively contain the infection and block the transmission.

The Convidecia vaccine has been approved in about ten countries.