China’s Sinopharm says its coronavirus vaccine is 79% effective

China’s Sinopharm says its coronavirus vaccine is 79% effective

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Interim analysis of Phase 3 clinical trials shows that the vaccine is safe and people who received two doses produced high-level antibodies, according to a statement published on Wednesday by the Beijing Biological Products Institute Co., a subsidiary of Sinopharm .

The company said it was seeking formal approval from regulators in China to distribute the vaccine to the public.

The coronavirus vaccines developed by Sinopharm have already been administered to hundreds of thousands of people under a controversial emergency use program approved by the Chinese government.

In November, nearly a million people had received a vaccine against Sinopharm, according to the company’s president, although he did not specify which of the company’s two vaccines they received.

Although few details were provided, the statement released on Wednesday said the vaccine meets the standards of the World Health Organization and China’s regulator, the National Medical Products Administration.

The Sinopharm vaccine is less effective than those developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which have an efficacy rate of around 95%. The Russian Sputnik V vaccine is 91% effective.
And the vaccine’s effectiveness rate of 79% is lower than the 86% announced by the United Arab Emirates for the same vaccine on December 9. The United Arab Emirates based its results on a provisional analysis of end-stage clinical trials conducted there starting in July. He has since approved the vaccine for public use.
The Sinopharm vaccine has a higher rate of effectiveness than that developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, in the United Kingdom, which averaged 70%. On Wednesday, the United Kingdom was the first country to approve this vaccine for public distribution.

One step closer to a massive launch

Sinopharm’s results were announced weeks after its global competitors. And with the lack of details, it is not yet clear whether the information provided will be enough to dispel skepticism about the quality of Chinese vaccines.

However, the announcement may still pave the way for the large-scale launch of the vaccine in China and globally.

The country plans to inoculate 50 million people with home vaccines from Covid-19 ahead of the Lunar New Year celebrations in February, a Chinese vaccination expert confirmed to CNN earlier this month.
China has promised millions of coronavirus vaccines to countries around the world. And are ready to deliver them

China is ready to send hundreds of millions of doses to countries that have carried out last-stage tests for their main vaccine candidates. Chinese leaders have also pledged a growing list of developing countries with priority access.

Beijing is using the global campaign as a soft power tool, analysts say, to try to repair any damage to its image due to the early handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

China has five coronavirus candidates from four companies that have reached Phase 3 clinical trials, the last and most important test step before regulatory approval is requested. Having largely eliminated the spread of the coronavirus within its borders, Chinese pharmaceutical companies had to look for locations abroad to test the effectiveness of their vaccines. Together, they have implemented Phase 3 testing in at least 16 countries.

Sinopharm’s two vaccine candidates are undergoing Phase 3 testing in 10 countries, mainly in the Middle East and South America.

Sinopharm President Liu Jingzhen said last month that dozens of countries had requested to buy the company’s vaccines. He did not name the countries or give details about the quantity of doses they proposed, but said that the CNBG was capable of producing more than a billion doses in 2021.

In comparison to Pfizer and Moderna, Sinopharm vaccines do not require freezing temperatures for storage, making transport and distribution much easier – especially in developing countries that lack refrigerated storage capacity.

CNN’s Beijing office contributed to the report.

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