BEIJING — The vaccine race is on and Chinese researchers may have a head start after they claim they have successfully protected monkeys with a coronavirus vaccine.

According to a study published recently in the preprint server bioRxiv, scientists at Sinovac Biotech, a private Beijing based company, subjected eight rhesus macaque monkeys to two versions of its vaccine.

Three weeks later when the monkeys were exposed to the deadly pathogen, none developed a full-blown infection.

In contrast, four control animals developed high levels of SARS-CoV-2 in several body parts and severe pneumonia.

Despite the limitations of the trail, Sinovac's senior director, Meng Weining told Science Magazine that the results "give us a lot of confidence" that the vaccine will work in humans.

The monkeys given the largest dose of the vaccine had the best response, as researchers were unable to detect the virus in any of their pharynxes or lungs. Monkeys that received a lower dose developed a minor infection in which they appear to have been able to control.

Impressively, the researchers even claimed that the vaccine "neutralized" the strains of the virus isolated from coronavirus patients in China, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

Acknowledging that monkeys with the virus don't actually develop the most severe symptoms seen in humans, the researchers said, "it's still too early to define the best animal model for studying SARS-CoV-2."

Sinovac is no stranger to developing vaccines, having marketed vaccines for hand, foot, and mouth disease; hepatitis A and B; and the bird flu.

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