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

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

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

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

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.

According to the chairman of the company, by one month almost one million people had received a Synopharm vaccine, although he did not specify which of the two vaccines the company had received.

Although few details have been provided, the statement on Wednesday announced that the vaccine meets the standards of the World Health Organization and China’s own regulator, the National Medical Products Administration.

The Sinopharm vaccine is less effective than those developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which have an efficiency rate of approximately 95%. The Russian Sputnik V vaccine is 91% effective.
And the efficacy rate of 79% of the vaccine is lower than the 86% that the United Arab Emirates announced for the same vaccine on December 9th. It has since approved the vaccine for public use.
The Sinopharm vaccine has a higher efficacy rate than that developed by the UK University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, which averaged 70%. On Wednesday, the United Kingdom became the first country to approve the vaccine for public distribution.

A step closer to massive deployment

Sinopharm’s results were announced weeks after its global competitors. And with a lack of detail, it remains unclear whether the information provided will be sufficient to dispel skepticism about the quality of Chinese vaccines.

Nevertheless, the announcement could still pave the way for the large-scale introduction of the vaccine within China as well as worldwide.

The country aims to vaccinate 50 million people with Covid-19 vaccines ahead of home celebrations in February, a Chinese vaccine expert confirmed to CNN earlier this month.
China has promised millions of coronavirus vaccines to countries worldwide. And it's ready to save them

China is ready to send hundreds of millions of doses to countries that have done final tests for its leading vaccine candidates. Chinese leaders have also promised a growing list of developing countries priority access.

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

China has five coronavirus candidates from four companies that have passed Phase 3 clinical trials, the last and most important step to test before seeking approval from the regulator. After the spread of coronavirus within its borders was largely eliminated, Chinese drug manufacturers abroad had to look for places to test the effectiveness of their vaccines. Together, they instituted Phase 3 trials in at least 16 countries.

Sinopharm’s two vaccine candidates are undergoing Phase 3 trials in ten countries, mostly in the Middle East and South America.

Liu Jingzhen, chairman of Sinopharm, said last month that dozens of countries had requested to buy the company’s vaccines. He did not name or expand the countries on the amount of doses they proposed, but he said CNBG could deliver more than a billion doses in 2021.

Compared to Pfizer and Moderna, Sinopharm’s vaccines do not require freezing temperatures for storage, which makes transportation and distribution much easier – especially in developing countries that do not have cold storage capacity.

CNN’s Beijing bureau contributed to reporting.

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