ANKARA (Reuters): A COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech is 91.25% effective, according to provisional data from a final phase trial in Turkey, a potentially much better result than reported by a separate trial of vaccine in Brazil.
Researchers from Brazil, which is also conducting a final phase III trial of the vaccine, said Wednesday that the shot was more than 50% effective, but withheld the full results at the company’s request, and raised questions about transparency. .
Turkish investigators said no significant side effects were seen during their trial on Thursday, apart from a person who had an allergic reaction. Common side effects caused by the vaccine were fever, mild pain and mild fatigue, they said.
Turkish trials began Sept. 14 and have included more than 7,000 volunteers, the researchers said, adding that the results announced Thursday were based on data from 1,322 people.
Sinovac is the first Chinese vaccine manufacturer to publish details of final-stage clinical trials, following positive results from rival products developed by Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca last month.
Turkish investigators, speaking alongside Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, said 26 of the 29 people who were infected during the trial received placebo, adding that the trial would continue for up to 40 infected people.
“We are now confident that the vaccine is effective and safe (to use) for the Turks,” Koca said, adding that Ankara would use the data to license the vaccine.
He also said that researchers initially planned to announce the results after 40 people were infected, but that the findings showed that volunteers had minimal adverse effects after the shooting and were therefore considered safe.
“Despite being risky, we saw a very slight image in which the PCR of three people (COVID test) was positive, without fever or respiratory problems … We can easily say that, despite being risky, these three people passed the very lightly, “He said.
SHIPMENTS ARRIVE MONDAY
Turkey had agreed to buy 50 million doses of the Sinovac shot and receive delivery on December 11, but shipment was delayed.
Koca said three million doses would arrive on Monday, adding that Turkey would vaccinate about nine million people from the first group, starting with health workers.
Sinovac has also signed supply agreements for its vaccine, called CoronaVac, with countries such as Indonesia, Brazil, Chile and Singapore, and is negotiating with the Philippines and Malaysia.
CoronaVac has been given to tens of thousands of people under an emergency use program that China launched in July to target specific high-risk risk groups.
CoronaVac is based on traditional vaccine technology that uses inactivated coronavirus that cannot be replicated in human cells to elicit an immune response.
Vaccines developed by Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna use a new technology called synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA) to activate the immune system against the virus and require much colder storage.
Treatment with Pfizer is the first fully tested COVID-19 shot to be administered, already with the launch in Britain and the United States.
Koca said Turkey would sign an agreement with Pfizer / BioNTech to deliver 4.5 million doses of its vaccine by the end of March, with the option to buy 30 million doses later.
On Thursday, the number of coronavirus deaths in Turkey increased from 254 to 19,115, according to data from the Ministry of Health, while the total number of COVID-19 infections increased by 18,102.
Reports by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ali Kucukgocmen; Additional reports from Can Sezer in Istanbul and Roxanne Liu in Beijing; Edited by Alex Richardson, Mark Potter and Nick Macfie