BEIJING (Reuters) – The different efficacy results of a Chinese COVID-19 vaccine released separately in China and the United Arab Emirates are real and valid, a national National Biotec Group (CNBG) executive told state media ).
China on Thursday approved its first COVID-19 vaccine for general public use, a feature developed by a state-backed Sinopharm affiliate after the developer said the vaccine showed 79.34% effectiveness. based on a tentative analysis of final-stage clinical trials.
This rate is less than 86% of the same vaccine reported by the UAE on 9 December.
Countries show some differences in their standards and procedures in diagnosing patients, and the final results of identifying the COVID-19 case were different, Yang Xiaoming, president of the CNBG of the Sinopharm unit, told Global Times , a newspaper published by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s ruling communist party.
“Therefore, there were differences between the comprehensive data from several countries we reviewed and the protection rate data previously assessed by the UAE and Bahrain,” the Global Times said, according to Yang, in a report released Thursday.
“But these two results are real and valid,” Yang said, without providing further details about the data.
The CNBG did not participate in the analysis or review of data from clinical trials published by regulators in countries where their vaccine was being tested, Yang said.
The vaccine, developed by the CNBG Beijing Biological Products Institute unit, along with another candidate from a Wuhan-based CNBG unit, is being tested in phase III clinical trials outside of China.
Rehearsals for CNBG candidates have recruited more than 60,000 participants between the ages of 18 and 60, Yang said.
Report by Roxanne Liu and Ryan Woo; Edited by Kim Coghill