A health worker in Peru is preparing a syringe on December 9 to vaccinate a volunteer with the Sinopharm vaccine.
Photographer: Ernesto Benavides / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Ernesto Benavides / AFP / Getty Images
State-aided vaccine developer China National Biotec Group Co. said one of his shots was effective in preventing Covid-19 in 79.3% of the population, allowing him to apply for authorization to market the vaccine for use in the general population.
The interim data show that the vaccine, which has already been approved for emergency use in China, is safe and that people who have tested the shots generate high levels of antibodies, according to a statement posted on the website of Beijing Biological Products Institute Co., a subsidiary of Sinopharm, CNBG’s parent.
The vaccine rate – one of two developed by CNBG – meets the minimum standard of 50% efficacy set by US regulators for emergency authorization of Covid vaccines. Vaccines that use the latest messenger RNA technology from Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc. gave much better results and reduced the symptomatic Covid cases by more than 90% in giant trials.
The rate announced on Wednesday for the CNBG shot is also lower than reported from trials with the vaccine in the United Arab Emirates, which set the protection level at 86%.
CNBG, what submitted an application to the Chinese regulators for the vaccine last month and could become the first developer outside Russia to see the shots available to the general public, highlighting China’s determination to play a key role in vaccinating countries around the world. Other countries have given the chance to compete against Western vaccines to use only emergencies.
China struggles to make world trust with its vaccines
Yet China faces a challenge to ensure the safety and efficiency of governments and millions of people who have to rely on their vaccines. Chinese developers were sluggish compared to their Western counterparts in publishing the data, and they were in danger of worsening confidence in these candidates as the world placed a laser focus on which vaccines are most successful in fighting the pandemic.
The lack of transparency was clear last week, as evidenced by trials for a vaccine from Chinese developer Sinovac Biotech Ltd. confusing results about exactly how effective it is to protect people against Covid-19.
A Brazilian official said the Sinovac shot did not reach 90% efficiency, while Turkey said a trial in his country showed a 91% rate. Sinovac continues to reconcile the results of independent Phase III trials conducted in Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia and Chile, a person familiar with the trials said last week.
Both Sinopharm and Sinovac are betting on successful vaccinations to vaccinate more people around the world and save lives. The Chinese vaccines could also help their homeland gain geopolitical influence and restore an image damaged by criticism of the initial response to the virus.
Global promise
China has agreed to supply its vaccines to Covax, an effort supported by the World Health Organization to provide vaccinations to developing countries. The Chinese vaccines have the advantage of being easier to store and distribute, as they do not need to be frozen – unlike those of Pfizer and Moderna. It can be stored at normal refrigerator temperatures, facilitating distribution to rural areas and developing countries.
CNBG, a state-owned drug manufacturer with a dominant stake in China’s vaccination market, was one of the world’s first in April to push experimental shots into the important final phase of human testing. The company’s research institutes have developed two shots using an inactivated version of the virus to stimulate the immune response, an approach commonly used by many of the existing vaccines to prevent diseases around the world.
CNBG has vaccine supply agreements with several developing countries, including Malaysia, Brazil, Pakistan and the UAE, according to public reports compiled by Bloomberg. Leading Western developers such as AstraZeneca Plc and Pfizer have colored agreements with many more countries.
More than 5.1 million shots fired: Covid-19 Vaccine detection
Despite the fact that China’s vaccines have not yet received regulatory approval for widespread use, doses have been given to hundreds of thousands of people in China under an emergency program since the middle of the year. It has expressed scientists’ concerns about potential risks of using shots whose safety and effectiveness have yet to be thoroughly studied.
About one million Chinese have already been vaccinated on December 19, a large portion of the more than 5.1 million shots fired so far around the world, according to data collected by Bloomberg.
– With the help of Emma O’Brien and Claire Che
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