RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – The CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese Sinovac Biotech Ltd has shown effectiveness between 50% and 90% in Brazilian tests, said the São Paulo state health secretary, and its Brazilian producer said the complete results of the tests will be released by January 7.
The results of the tests in Brazil are known exclusively by the biomedical research center of the Butantan Institute in São Paulo, which has an agreement with Sinovac to produce the vaccine, said health secretary Jean Gorinchteyn.
The first tests showed effectiveness above 50%, the minimum required by the Brazilian health regulatory agency, Anvisa, and below 90%, said Gorinchteyn in an interview with CBN radio broadcast on Thursday night.
At Sinovac’s request, the São Paulo health department did not receive the full test results from the Chinese pharmaceutical company, he said, adding that the company will analyze the data before announcing the final results.
Butantan will release the results of the data study within 15 days, or until January 7, the institute said in a note on Friday.
The South American country recorded 7,448,560 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 190,488 deaths from COVID-19, the country’s Ministry of Health reported on Friday.
On Wednesday, Butantan declined to specify the effectiveness rate of a test with 13,000 volunteers, citing contractual obligations to Sinovac, raising questions about transparency.
The CoronaVac vaccine showed 91.25% effectiveness in Turkey, according to an announcement on Thursday of provisional data for a final-stage test in the country.
Reporting by Sabrina Valle; Editing by David Goodman and Dan Grebler