BEIJING, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) - China's first patent for a COVID-19 vaccine has been granted by the National Intellectual Property Administration.

The patent was jointly applied for by a research team with the Academy of Military Sciences and CanSino Biologics Inc., a Chinese high-tech biopharmaceutical company, said a report in People's Daily.

The team led by Chen Wei, a researcher at the Institute of Military Medicine under the academy, developed the recombinant COVID-19 vaccine, with the modified defective adenovirus as the vector.

In March, the vaccine became the first in China to be approved to enter clinical trials.

According to the patent abstract, the vaccine shows good immunogenicity in both mouse and guinea pig models and can induce strong cellular and humoral immune response in a short period of time. It can be produced quickly on a large scale to cope with a COVID-19 outbreak.

The vaccine has now finished phase-1 and phase-2 clinical trials, which have verified its safety and immunogenicity, said the report.   ■