(Image from the CDC)

Chinese pharmaceutical company CanSino Biologics‘ COVID-19 vaccine candidate has received a patent from the Chinese government — the first such patent granted in the country.

Chinese state media outlet People’s Daily reported Sunday that the country’s National Intellectual Property Administration granted the patent for Ad5-nCoV, which uses a weakened human common cold virus to deliver genetic material that codes for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to the cells. These cells then produce the spike protein, and travel to the lymph nodes where the immune system creates antibodies that will recognize that spike protein and fight off the coronavirus, according to research published in The Lancet in July.

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