Coronavirus vaccine from China’s Sinopharm is 79% effective, company says
- 3 years ago
A coronavirus vaccine developed by Chinese drugmaker Sinopharm is 79.3% effective in protecting people from covid-19, according to interim data released by the company on Wednesday, paving the way for millions of Chinese vaccines to enter the global market.
China National Biotec Group (CNBG), a subsidiary of state-owned Sinopharm, said the results were based on interim analysis from Phase 3 trials. In a brief statement posted on the website of the CNBG unit, Beijing Institute of Biological Products, the company did not give key details, including the sample size tested or number of infections in the trial.
The company said the two-shot vaccine proved “safe” and that those who received it produced a high level of antibodies against the virus.
As coronavirus cases continue to surge globally, a massive emergency vaccination drive is underway with drug developers and governments racing to get their vaccines approved. On Wednesday, the British government said its regulator had approved a vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca for emergency use.
The Sinopharm vaccine appears to be less effective than those developed by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, which have shown an efficacy rate of 95 percent. The rate announced by Sinopharm is also lower than the 86 percent efficacy reported by officials in the United Arab Emirates after clinical trials of the vaccine conducted there.
The development bolsters China’s public health diplomacy drive. China has held up its vaccines as a key part of its partnerships with developing countries, many of which have struggled to buy supplies of other newly released vaccines.
“China’s attention is not on ‘vaccine race,’ let alone so-called ‘vaccine diplomacy,’ but on the common interests of all humanity,” the state-run Global Times said in a Dec. 14 editorial.
The Sinopharm vaccine uses an inactivated version of the virus to trigger an immune response, unlike the mRNA vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna that use new technology. It does not need to be frozen, making for easier storage and distribution.
Sinopharm has another vaccine in late-stage trials. Despite the lack of regulatory approval, its vaccines have already been used on hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizens under an emergency use program for high-risk groups since July.
Officials plan to vaccinate 50 million people in the country by the middle of next month, before the Lunar Near Year holiday when hundreds of millions crisscross the country.
Chinese state media reported last week that drug regulators had formally accepted an application from the company for use of its vaccine among the general public. Sinopharm submitted an application for regulatory approval in November.
China grapples with new coronavirus cases ahead of Lunar New Year Coronavirus vaccine from China’s Sinopharm is 86% effective, UAE officials say Britain grants emergency approval to coronavirus vaccine by Oxford and AstraZeneca
Source: Washington Post
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