A leading scientist at China's pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm has stated that it would soon put its COVID-19 drug into clinical trial in the United Arab Emirates. Even as a large number of COVID-19 drugs are being authorized for emergency use across the world, the scientist affirmed that vaccination is still the most effective way to combat the virus with the aim of building herd immunity.

In a recent interview with the Global Times, Zhang Yuntao, vice president and chief scientist of Sinopharm's subsidiary China National Biotec Group (CNBG), explained that the human immunoglobulin drug, an intravenous injection, has been authorised to conduct clinical trials in China and the UAE, adding that the trials will be launched in the coming days.

Zhang revealed that it is the world's first special immunoglobulin product to obtain official approval for clinical trials. Earlier, CNBG had revealed that it was working on developing two COVID-19 medicines based on human immunoglobulin and monoclonal antibodies.

Notably, the drug was recently used in China when several parts of the country witnessed surging infections. The drug reportedly had a good therapeutic effect. Meanwhile, the other medicine which is based on monoclonal antibodies showed good neutralizing effects on the novel Coronavirus in recently conducted experiments. Zhang stated that the drug is undergoing the procedure to obtain approval for clinical trial from the Chinese authorities.

Other than CNBG, a number of other Chinese firms are also progressing in their research and development (R&D) of COVID-19 treatments.

For instance, China and US-based Brii Biosciences has applied to the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorisation for its SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing monoclonal antibody combination therapy called BRII-196/BRII-198. The drug has the potential to reduce the rate of hospitalisation and death among high-risk COVID-19 patients by 78 percent.

"The medicines of CNBG and Brii Biosciences are bio-macromolecular drugs that cure patients by neutralizing the virus and preventing it from replicating in the human body. They are of good specificity, efficacy and safety," Zhang explained.

In addition, drugs made by Merck and Pfizer are small molecule drugs with various working mechanisms to inhibit the absorption, replication, assembly and release of the virus.

On November 4, the UK became the first country in the world to approve the COVID-19 antiviral pill jointly developed by US-based Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.

According to the information on the UK government website, clinical trials of the drug were effective in reducing the risk of hospitalisation and death among at-risk non-hospitalised adults with mild to moderate COVID-19 infection by 50 percent. The drug named molnupiravir will be sold under the name Lagevrio in the UK.

For the drug, applications have been placed under review by other regulatory authorities, including the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency.

Pfizer has also noted that its experimental antiviral pill has the potential to reduce the chance of hospitalization or death for at-risk adults by 89 percent.

However, experts have affirmed that these drugs must not be seen as substitutes for vaccination. COVID-19 vaccine is still the most effective measure to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 disease by building herd immunity.

"Drugs can reduce the incidence rate of severe cases and deaths, but cannot terminate the pandemic," Zhang said.

In this regard, she noted that using both vaccines and drugs can significantly help in controlling the impact of the pandemic.

Zhang revealed that CNBG's COVID-19 vaccine is being used in 112 countries and regions.