China approves commercial use of indigenous Covid-19 vaccine
Shanghai, China, Dec 31 (efe-epa).- China on Thursday greenlighted the commercial use of a homegrown coronavirus vaccine after an interim analysis of clinical trial results showed it is more than 79 percent effective against Covid-19.
State-run Xinhua news agency reported that the government granted “conditional marketing authorization for a self-developed Covid-19 vaccine.”
A unit of the China National Biotec Group (CNBG), an affiliate of a state-run pharmaceutical company, Sinopharm, and its subsidiary, Beijing Institute of Biological Products, have developed the vaccine.
The two companies had filed an application with the National Medical Products Administration for conditional market approval on Wednesday.
They claimed that based on an interim analysis of Phase 3 clinical trials in China, the vaccine is 79.34 percent effective in protection against Covid-19.
“After a two-dose inoculation procedure, the vaccine receivers produced high-tier antibodies, and the seroconversion rate of neutralizing antibodies reached 99.52 percent,” the developer said in a statement on Wednesday.
The vaccine is among several Chinese immunizing agents that have concluded Phase 3 trials.
Sinopharm did not mention any possible side effects of its vaccine.
The Chinese health authorities have earlier maintained that there were no serious adverse effects during the trials of different vaccines developed in the country.
Sinopharm is officially the first to announce the effectiveness of its vaccine based on an interim analysis of Phase 3 clinical trials in China, even as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), one of the countries that participated in the tests, had earlier indicated that efficacy of 86 percent.
The UAE was the first country to approve a Chinese vaccine. China has not yet officially authorized the marketing of any of the serums developed in the country. The state media had claimed that the authorities would do that before the end of 2020.
The interim analysis of the trials corroborates with the World Health Organization (WHO), according to the CNBG’s Beijing Institute of Biological Products.
CNBG is developing another vaccine that is in the last of the stage trials. The two vaccines had already won approval from the government for emergency use in China. EFE-EPA
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