News > China’s Vaccine Front-Runner Aims to Beat Covid the Old-Fashioned Way

China’s Vaccine Front-Runner Aims to Beat Covid the Old-Fashioned Way

Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech Ltd. began final-stage trials in July on CoronaVac. It relies on an inactive version of the novel coronavirus to teach human immune systems to recognize and destroy the real thing.

Sinovac’s method is relatively crude, relying on a similar principle to the one Edward Jenner, employed when he used the mild cowpox virus to perform the first-ever inoculations against smallpox. But it just might work.