BEIJING (Reuters) – Two COVID-19 vaccines from Chinese companies, including Sinopharm, triggered immunity against a highly transmissible coronavirus variant found in South Africa, but its effect appeared weaker, a study showed of small sample laboratory published on Tuesday.
Variants of the virus have been concerned that they may weaken the effects of vaccines and treatments developed before their onset.
Twelve serum samples taken each from two vaccine recipients developed by a subsidiary of China’s National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) and a unit of Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products retained neutralizing activity against the South African variant, the its researchers in a paper.
The work was written by researchers at the Beijing Institute of Biological Products, affiliated with Sinopharm, the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which jointly develops a candidate with the Zhifei unit and two other Chinese agencies. .
However, the activity of the samples against the variant was weaker than against the original virus and another variant that is spreading worldwide, according to the document published on the BioRxiv website before its peer review. bit.ly/3rfr2UZ
The reduction in activity “should be taken into account because of its impact on the clinical efficacy of these vaccines,” they said.
The Sinopharm vaccine is approved in China for general public use and is also used in several other countries, including the United Arab Emirates. Zhifei’s shot is in final-stage clinical trials in China and abroad.
Preliminary data from clinical trials on Novavax Inc and Johnson & Johnson vaccines also showed that they were significantly less effective in preventing COVID-19 in trial participants in South Africa, where the potent new variant is widespread.
Report by Roxanne Liu and Ryan Woo; Edited by Miyoung Kim and Simon Cameron-Moore