(Yicai Global) June 18 -- Chinese vaccine maker Ab&b Bio-Tec and a public health institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences will join hands to come up with a faster, gene-based Covid-19 inoculation for global use.

Ab&b Bio-Tec and the Institut Pasteur Shanghai penned a cooperation agreement to develop and produce vaccines against the new type of coronavirus, the CAS said in a press release published yesterday.

Gene-based vaccines are programmed to help the body create antibodies against viruses instead of using live or weakened viruses to prompt that immune system response. That's why their development process is quicker. These types of vaccines can be easily mass-produced and they have a long shelf life, according to the CAS.

By last month, China had five Covid-19 vaccines that have entered clinical trials, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology. Four of them are inactivated vaccines and one is an adenoviral vector-based inoculation.

Since the Covid-19 epidemic started, the IPS launched a special research project to help detect, treat, and prevent the spread of the virus, the statement added. The IPS was founded in 2004 by the CAS and France's Pasteur Institute.

Established in 2015, Ab&b Bio-Tech mainly makes influenza and rabies vaccines in its two production lines in eastern China's Taizhou with a total investment of CNY400 million (USD56.5 million) as of last month.

Editor: Dou Shicong, Emmi Laine