Chinese firm says shot is 79% effective
A Chinese pharmaceutical company said Wednesday that an early analysis of clinical trial results showed that one of its coronavirus vaccines was effective, an announcement that sent a positive signal for the global rollout of Chinese vaccines but lacked crucial details.
State-controlled Sinopharm said a vaccine candidate made by its Beijing Institute of Biological Products arm is 79 percent effective based on an interim analysis of Phase 3 trials. Chinese regulators said they’ve given conditional approval for the vaccine to be used broadly.
If supported, the results will bolster claims that Chinese officials have made in recent days that the country’s vaccines are safe and effective.
Even before securing the government’s official approval, authorities had moved ahead with mass vaccinations, defying industry norms. They plan to vaccinate 50 million people in China by mid-february.
But Sinopharm’s announcement, only a few sentences long, provided no breakdown of results and left many questions unanswered, adding to a lack of clarity that has dogged China’s coronavirus vaccine development for months.
“With each of these vaccines we’redealing with bits andpiecesof information,” said Dr. Kim Mulholland, a pediatrician at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia.
Sinopharm uses inactivated coronaviruses to make its vaccine — a tried-and-true method dating back over 130 years that uses chemicals to disable the virus’ genes so that it can’t replicate. Yet the inactivated coronavirus still can cause the body’s immune system to produce antibodies against it.
Experts cite drawbacks to inactivated vaccines like the ones being made by Sinopharm.
They require starting off with large batches of live coronavirus samples, which can pose a biosecurity risk. Once the live samples are inactivated, it takes an extra manufacturing step to ensure that noneofthemsurvivethe treatment.