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BEIJING (Dec. 31): China on Thursday approved its first COVID-19 vaccine for general public use, a vaccine developed by a state-backed subsidiary of pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm, as it prepares for increased transmission risks during the winter. .
No detailed data on the vaccine’s efficacy has been released, but its developer, the Beijing Institute of Biological Products, a unit of China National Biotec Group (CNBG), a subsidiary of Sinopharm, said on Wednesday that its vaccine was effective. 79.34% to prevent people from developing the disease. on provisional data.
The approval, announced by the National Administration of Medical Products, comes after the United Arab Emirates this month became the first country to launch the vaccine to the public, and when Pakistan announced a purchase agreement for 1.2 million dose with Sinopharm.
While China has been slower than several other countries in approving COVID-19 vaccines, it has been inoculating some citizens for months with three different injections that are still in the late testing phase.
China launched an emergency use program in July targeting essential workers and others at high risk of infection, having administered more than 4.5 million doses as of December 15 using at least three different products, two developed by CNBG and one by Sinovac. Biotech.
While Sinopharm’s injection efficacy is below the success rate of more than 90% of rival vaccines from Pfizer Inc and its partner BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc, it points to the progress China has made in the global race to develop successful COVID-19 vaccines.
China has at least five vaccines, developed by Sinovac, CNBG units, CanSino Biologics and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in late-stage trials, underscoring its efforts to develop a homegrown vaccine to challenge Western rivals.
President Xi Jinping has vowed to make China’s vaccines a global public good and has won several major supply deals with countries like Indonesia and Brazil, the most populous countries in Southeast Asia and Latin America, respectively.
Viewing the data
Many developing countries are closely monitoring efficacy and safety data for vaccines made in China, as they have limited early access to injections developed by Western drug manufacturers and are looking for alternatives from China and Russia.
“China’s approval could increase the credibility of the vaccine,” said Dong-yan Jin, a professor at the University of Hong Kong.
“But if the vaccine wants to take part in the global market, especially in developed countries, more data is needed.”
A Sinopharm executive told a briefing that the detailed data would be released later and published in domestic and foreign scientific journals.
While China has kept the new coronavirus outbreaks in check, it is stepping up the emergency program to contain risks through the winter. The virus emerged a year ago in a market in the central city of Wuhan.
The South China Morning Post reported that China would vaccinate up to 50 million people from high-priority groups before the Lunar New Year holidays in February.
“We call on people … to take an active part in vaccination to protect themselves, their family members and others, which is also contributing to the control of the global epidemic,” said Zeng Yixin, an official from the National Health Commission, in a briefing on Thursday.
The price of the vaccine would depend on the scale of use, but the “premise” was that it would be free to the public in China, he said.
The approval comes as Britain on Wednesday approved a second COVID-19 vaccine, an injection developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, as it battles a huge winter surge fueled by a new variant of the virus.
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