Hong Kong said residents will be able to choose which vaccine against Covid-19 they want to take, as the city added a third candidate to its arsenal with an agreement to buy shots from AstraZeneca Plc.
The city reached an agreement with AstraZeneca on 7.5 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, executive president Carrie Lam said at a news meeting Wednesday. The agreement joins similar agreements with Pfizer Inc.—BioNTech SE and Chinese developer Sinovac Biotech Ltd., giving the city a total of 22.5 million potential doses of vaccines. Hong Kong is looking for 7.5 million more doses and residents will be able to choose which vaccine to take, according to Lam.
While the measure will address the concerns of residents eager to get a Chinese vaccine, it also raises the possibility of running in particular shots. The three candidates are very different and none of them have yet been approved for use in the city, which is enduring its fourth wave of pandemic. In an attempt to encourage the adoption of vaccines, Lam said Wednesday that the government will create a fund to provide financial support to patients with side effects.
Spectrum of Confinement Hang Hong Kong while the virus persists
The Pfizer vaccine, which the data indicate has a 95% protection rate against Covid-19, uses a new technology called messenger RNA that turns the body’s own cells into vaccine-producing factories to fight the coronavirus. Although the shot is considered safe, there have been reports of severe allergic reactions.
Sinovac is shot using an inactivated version of the coronavirus that is said to be the main human immune system to fight it. The research showed that the vaccine was more than 50% effective in a Brazilian clinical trial delay the publication of more information at the request of the company. The AstraZeneca vaccine is the one that offers the most deals worldwide, but the initial clinical results were mixed.
Lam said Wednesday that the government has appointed a committee to approve emergency use of vaccines, indicating the city is approaching to authorize candidates.
Countries that do not have the capacity to independently validate experimental drug therapies often rely on reviews from major global pharmaceutical authorities such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration To date, the Pfizer-BioNTech feature has been approved in United States and the European Union Singapore approved it last week.
Bloomberg reported earlier this month that Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co., the Chinese company with rights to market the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in Hong Kong, was preparing to apply for approval of the shot shortly after the United States clarified it.
(Updates with the results of the Sinovac test in the fifth paragraph)