A state pharmaceutical company in China used its own employees as test subjects for tests of the COVID-19 vaccine even before the government approved tests for people.
The move, which raises questions about possible international ethical violations by China’s major pharmaceutical companies, signals a major leap toward developing a coronavirus vaccine ahead of the rest of the world, and the country’s will to push the limits. to get there.
“Lending a hand to forge the victory sword,” read an online publication by Beijing-based SinoPharm, with pictures of workers who it says helped “pre-test” their vaccine, according to reports by The Associated Press.
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In this April 10, 2020 photo released by the Xinhua News Agency, a staff member shows a sample of a possible COVID-19 vaccine at a SinoPharm production facility in Beijing. (Zhang Yuwei / Xinhua via AP)
SinoPharm claims that 30 “special volunteers” agreed to inject the vaccine even before the company obtained permission for its initial human study. The company’s publication cites a “spirit of sacrifice” and shows seven men in suits and ties, a mix of scientists, businessmen, and a Communist Party official with experience in military propaganda.
“Ethical review of research and ensuring informed consent for all participants who join a vaccine or therapeutic trial is the ethical minimum for any study,” Summer McGee, dean of the College of Health Sciences, told Fox News from the University of New Haven. “China must ensure that the tests are robust and do not exploit anyone so that the results are valid and accepted worldwide.”
Competing against the United States, Britain and other global players vying to develop a vaccine nearly eight months after the coronavirus infected more than 13.6 million people worldwide, China’s progress looks promising. Eight of nearly two dozen potential vaccines at various stages of human testing worldwide come from China, most from any country.
In this April 11, 2020, photo released by the Xinhua News Agency, a staff member analyzes samples of a possible COVID-19 vaccine at a SinoPharm production facility in Beijing. (Zhang Yuwei / Xinhua via AP)
SinoPharm is approved to begin clinical trials in Abu Dhabi in the final phase of vaccine development with up to 15,000 volunteers, making China and the United Arab Emirates the first to test an inactivated vaccine, officials from the Thursday announced. city of the Middle East. Reuters
China has invested its resources in the inactivated test technique, which develops a complete virus in the laboratory and then kills it, using the dead coronavirus strain to trigger a human immune response, similar to the technique behind the polio vaccine. . Western competitors have opted for a newer, less proven method that targets the “spike” protein that coats the virus.
“The entire world is working at breakneck pace to develop a vaccine, but even in a global pandemic, this is not the time to cut ethical corners,” said McGee.
In this April 11, 2020 photo released by the Xinhua News Agency, staff members check and clean equipment at a SinoPharm vaccine production plant in Beijing. (Zhang Yuwei / Xinhua via AP)
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Despite ethical concerns, hundreds of SinoPharm employees, including senior executives, have received proof of the vaccine before approvals, Chinese media reported.
SinoPharm’s subsidiary groups have already begun building factories capable of generating more than 200 million doses of the potential vaccine annually, the company said, according to Fortune reports.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
