A Peruvian health worker prepares a syringe to inoculate a volunteer with the Sinopharm vaccine on December 9th.
Photographer: Ernesto Benavides / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Ernesto Benavides / AFP / Getty Images
Vaccine developer with state support China National Biotec Group Co. said one of its features is effective in preventing Covid-19 in 79.3% of people, allowing it to apply for authorization to market inoculation for use in the general population.
Provisional data show that the vaccine, which is already authorized for emergency use in China, is safe and that the people who fired the shots during the trial generated high levels of antibodies, according to a statement posted on the website of Beijing Biological Products Institute Co., a subsidiary of Sinopharm, the parent company of CNBG.
The vaccine rate, one of two developed by CNBG, meets the minimum 50% efficacy standard set by U.S. regulators for the emergency authorization of Covid vaccines. However, vaccines that use the latest messenger RNA technology Moderna Inc. i Pfizer Inc. has obtained much better results, reducing symptomatic cases of Covid by more than 90% in giant trials.
The rate announced Wednesday for CNBG shooting is also lower than that reported in vaccine trials in the UAE, which placed the level of protection at 86%.
CNBG, which filed an application with Chinese regulators to get the vaccine last month, and could become the first developer outside of Russia to see its features available for general public use, underscoring China’s determination to be a important player in the supply of inoculations to countries around the world. Other countries have given their approval to rival Western vaccines only for emergency use.
China is struggling to get the world to trust its vaccines
Still, China faces a challenge to reassure governments and millions of people who may have to rely on their vaccines for their safety and effectiveness. Chinese developers have been slow compared to their Western counterparts when it comes to publishing data, risking eroding confidence in these candidates, as the world puts the laser focus on which vaccines are most successful in the fight against the pandemic.
The lack of transparency was evident last week, as evidenced by tests for a vaccine by Chinese developer Sinovac Biotech Ltd. confusing results about its effectiveness in protecting people from Covid-19.
A Brazilian official said Sinovac’s shooting did not reach 90% effectiveness, while Turkey said a trial in its country showed a rate of 91%. Sinovac is still reconciling the results of independent phase III trials conducted in Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia and Chile, a person familiar with the trials said last week.
Both Sinopharm and Sinovac are betting on successful vaccines to inoculate more people around the world and save lives. Chinese vaccines could also help their home country gain geopolitical influence and restore an image tarnished by criticism of its initial response to the virus.
Global promise
China has agreed to supply its vaccines to Covax, an effort backed by the World Health Organization to provide inoculations to developing nations. Chinese vaccines have the advantage of facilitating storage and distribution, as they do not need to be frozen, unlike those of Pfizer and Moderna. They can be stored at normal refrigerator temperatures, which facilitates distribution in rural areas and developing countries.
A state-owned drug manufacturer that has a dominant share of China’s vaccine market, CNBG in April was one of the first in the world to push experimental shots into the crucial final phase of human testing. The company’s research institutes developed two prey with an inactivated version of the virus to stimulate the immune response, an approach widely adopted by many of the existing vaccines used to prevent disease worldwide.
CNBG has vaccine supply agreements with several developing countries, including Malaysia, Brazil, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, according to reports released by Bloomberg. Leading Western developers such as AstraZeneca Plc and Pfizer have signed agreements with many more countries.
More than 5.1 million shots fired: Covid-19 Vaccine monitoring
Although vaccines in China have not yet received regulatory approval for widespread use, hundreds of thousands of people in China have already been dosed under an emergency use program in China. vigor since mid-year. This has raised concerns among scientists about possible risks in using shots whose safety and effectiveness have not yet been thoroughly studied.
Approximately one million Chinese have already received inoculations on December 19, a large portion of the more than 5.1 million shots administered so far worldwide, according to data collected by Bloomberg.
– With the assistance of Emma O’Brien and Claire Che
(Add background to other Chinese plans beginning in the fifth paragraph)