State-backed vaccine developer China National Biotec Group (CNBG) said that one of its shots is effective in preventing COVID-19 in 79.3 percent of people, allowing it to apply for authorization to market the inoculation for use in the general population.
Interim data showed that the vaccine, which is authorized for emergency use in China, is safe and that people who took the shots in the trial all generated high levels of antibodies, a statement posted on the Web site of Beijing Biological Products Institute, a subsidiary of CNBG’s parent Sinopharm, said yesterday.
The rate for the vaccine — one of two developed by CNBG — meets the minimum standard of 50 percent efficacy set by the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency authorization of COVID-19 vaccines.
However, the vaccines using cutting-edge messenger RNA technology from Moderna and Pfizer have produced far better results, reducing symptomatic COVID-19 cases by more than 90 percent in giant trials.
The rate announced for the CNBG shot is also lower than what was reported from trials of the vaccine in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which put the protection level at 86 percent.
CNBG, which last month submitted an application to Chinese regulators for the vaccine, could become the first developer outside of Russia to see its shots made available for general public use, underscoring China’s determination to be a major player in supplying inoculations to countries around the world.
Other countries have given the go-ahead to rival Western vaccines for emergency-use only.
Yet China faces a challenge in assuring governments and millions of people who might need to rely on its vaccines of their safety and efficacy.
Chinese developers have been slower than their Western peers in releasing data, risking an erosion of confidence in these candidates as the world puts a laser focus on which vaccines are most successful in fighting the pandemic.
The lack of transparency was evident last week, as trials for a vaccine of Chinese developer Sinovac Biotech showed confusing results on exactly how effective it is in protecting people against COVID-19.
A Brazilian official said that the Sinovac shot did not reach 90 percent efficacy, while Turkey said that a trial in its country showed a rate of 91 percent.
Sinovac is still reconciling results of independent phase 3 trials carried out in Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia and Chile, a person familiar with the trials said last week.
Both Sinopharm and Sinovac are betting on successful vaccines to inoculate more people around the world and save lives.
The Chinese vaccines could also help their home country win geopolitical influence and restore an image tarnished by the criticism of its initial response to the virus.
China has agreed to supply its vaccines to COVAX, a WHO-backed effort to provide inoculations to developing nations.
The Chinese vaccines have the advantage of easier storage and distribution as they do not need to be frozen — unlike those from Pfizer and Moderna. They can be stored at normal refrigerator temperatures, making distribution to rural areas and developing countries easier.
A state-owned drugmaker that has a dominant share of China’s vaccine market, CNBG in April was among the world’s first to push experimental shots to the crucial final stage of human testing.
The company’s research institutes developed two shots using an inactivated version of the virus to stimulate immune response, an approach widely adopted by many of the existing vaccines used to prevent illness around the world.
CNBG has vaccine supply agreements with several developing countries, including Malaysia, Brazil, Pakistan and the UAE, public reports showed.
Leading developers such as AstraZeneca and Pfizer have inked agreements with far more countries.
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-use program in place since the middle of the year.
That has raised concern among scientists of potential risks in using shots whose safety and efficacy have yet to be thoroughly studied.
About 1 million Chinese as of Dec. 19 had received shots, a large portion of the 5.1 million shots given across the globe, data showed.
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