(Yicai Global) June 20 -- UK pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline received China's approval to conduct clinical trials for its respiratory syncytial virus vaccine in the country.

Arexvy, the world's first vaccine against RSV developed by GSK, was approved for clinical trials by the Center for Drug Evaluation yesterday, according to information on the website of the body under China's National Medical Products Administration. The vaccine can be used to prevent adults aged 60 and above from contracting lower respiratory illnesses caused by RSV-A and RSV-B subtype viruses, the CDE noted.

Arexvy is 83 percent effective in preventing lower respiratory illnesses caused by RSV and 94 percent in preventing severe cases, according to the results of clinical trials covering 25,000 elders published in authoritative academic magazine The New England Journal of Medicine.

The vaccine was found of good protective effects in a period of one year, but follow-up observation is still required to figure out the results in the long term, Xu Jianqing, a researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Science of Fudan University, told Yicai Global. Vaccines of the same kind usually have a period of protective effect of over a decade, Xu noted.

RSV, a common source of respiratory infection, causes symptoms similar to the cold but can be fatal for elders and infants. Developing a vaccine against this virus is challenging, as researchers have been trying for almost 60 years.

The US Food and Drug Administration approved sales of Arexvy last month for single shots in adults above 60 years old. The vaccine can be administered to elders before the arrival of the RSV season in winter, according to suggestions of the Center for Disease Control's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

After Arexvy, also Abrysvo, another RSV vaccine developed for elders aged above 60 by US firm Pfizer, received sales approvals from the FDA. US firm Moderna, China's Advaccine Biotechnology, and other pharmaceutical companies are also researching and developing RSV vaccines.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione