Shionogi & Co. announced Monday that it plans to enter the final stage of clinical trials for its COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year, with an aim to begin supplying doses sometime within fiscal 2021.
Shionogi has been developing a recombinant protein vaccine against the novel coronavirus, based on the technology behind flu shots.
Domestic clinical trials for the vaccine started in December 2020.
The drugmaker said it is currently engaged in discussions with the Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry to flesh out plans in order to move on to the final stage of clinical trials.
As inoculation campaigns proceed with vaccine made by U.S. firm Pfizer Inc. and other overseas pharmaceutical manufacturers, the practical rollout of a domestic vaccine has been hamstrung by the question of whether it would be possible to secure the tens of thousands of participants in Japan required for the final stage of clinical trials.
As such, the government has decided to ease the requirements for clinical trials and allow a new approach in which the participant pool to be reduced to a few thousand.
Such developments are believed to have been a factor that encouraged Shionogi to develop a domestic vaccine.
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