July 2026, Chengdu Olymvax Biopharmaceuticals Inc. (hereinafter referred to as Olymvax) has achieved successive landmark milestones, including a prestigious national science and technology award and critical R&D progress for its core pipeline.
On July 8, the National Science and Technology Award Conference, the General Assembly of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the 11th National Congress of the China Association for Science and Technology were grandly held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The project Key Technologies for the Development and Application of Superbug Vaccines, in which Olymvax participated in in-depth collaborative research, won the Second Prize of the 2025 National Technological Invention Award.
On July 10, Phase III clinical trial results of the Class 1.1 innovative drug — Recombinant Staphylococcus aureus Vaccine (Escherichia coli), co-developed by the company and the Army Medical University of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, were successfully unblinded.
Unblinded trial data demonstrated that the protective efficacy of the recombinant S. aureus vaccine in Phase III trials reached 73.25%, exceeding the pre-specified target efficacy of 60% outlined in the Phase III clinical protocol. Fourteen days after the first vaccination, both vaccine-specific antibodies and functional antibodies in the vaccine group peaked. Antibody levels remained stable at a plateau relative to baseline on Day 42 post-surgery and stayed at elevated levels 180 days after the initial shot. These findings confirm the vaccine’s robust immunogenicity, as well as favorable safety and tolerability profiles.
The back-to-back landmark achievements mark a major breakthrough for China’s domestically developed original technologies against superbugs and represent a pivotal turning point in the global fight against drug-resistant bacteria.
Resolving the Worldwide Dilemma of Superbug Prevention and Control
Staphylococcus aureus ranks among the most clinically devastating superbugs. It can trigger severe infectious complications such as septic arthritis, osteomyelitis, sepsis, acute pneumonia and endocarditis, as well as life-threatening systemic conditions including scalded skin syndrome and toxic shock syndrome. The World Health Organization has classified this pathogen on its high-priority list of 12 deadly drug-resistant bacteria. Multidrug-resistant S. aureus infections are difficult to treat with poor clinical outcomes, and no effective vaccine is available worldwide to date. This creates an urgent unmet clinical need, posing a longstanding global public health challenge.
To address this critical industrial and public health gap, the research team spent years tackling core technical hurdles. They pioneered a novel multi-target composite vaccine strategy termed "one vaccine, multiple targets, multi-dimensional blockade", overcoming the limitations of weak immune protection offered by single-target vaccines. The innovative multi-target composite vaccine technology resolved bottlenecks including the large number of pathogen vaccine targets, difficulties in target screening and formulation compatibility.
Built on solid original innovations and complete industrialization layout, the team established China’s first and world-leading full-chain technical system for bacterial vaccines, alongside the country’s dedicated industrial production line for S. aureus vaccines. This lays a solid foundation for the clinical advancement, regulatory approval and industrial manufacturing of this globally original vaccine.
Eighteen Years of Persistent Research: Chinese Original Vaccine Takes the Global Lead
The national award and critical clinical milestone represent key phased outcomes from the team’s 18 years of dedicated research in original biomedicine, and serve as authoritative validation of this fully self-developed, domestically controllable Chinese vaccine technology system.
Moving forward, Olymvax will steadily advance drug registration applications to accelerate the launch of this world-first original superbug vaccine, striving to deliver the globe’s first effective tool for superbug prevention and treatment. In the long run, Olymvax will continue to deepen original innovation in biomedicine, leverage domestically controllable core vaccine technologies to tackle global drug-resistant bacteria challenges, safeguard human life and health, and contribute China’s scientific and technological prowess to the global fight against drug-resistant bacterial infections.