Asian Tech Press (Dec 22) -- Chinese vaccine maker WestVac Biopharma Co., Ltd. announced Monday that its second-generation COVID-19 vaccine has high titers of neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron variant, and is expected to enter clinical trials in early 2022.

The progress was made in virtue of funding from the national emergency response project for the mutant COVID-19 vaccine.

"The neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron variant strain can reach a level of ten thousands (it means that the blood is diluted 10,000 times and still has the ability to block the virus from infecting cells)," WestVac Biopharma said in a statement.

Officials of the Chengdu-based company introduced that its second-generation COVID-19 vaccine is the first one announced internationally that has high titers of neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron mutant strain.

WestVac Biopharma was founded in July 2020 by more than 10 scientists from the State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy of West China Hospital of Sichuan University under the leadership of Academician Wei Yuquan and the Chengdu High-Tech Industrial Development Zone.

The company is currently valued at over $1 billion and has been successfully selected as a new unicorn company in 2021.