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BEIJING: China on Thursday approved a Covd-19 vaccine developed by a subsidiary of state pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm, its first injection approved for general public use as it prepares for increased risks of transmission 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 comes after the UAE this month became the first country to release the vaccine to the public.
While China has been slower than several other countries in approving Covid-19 vaccines, it has been vaccinating its citizens for months with three different vaccines that are still undergoing late-stage trials.
China launched an emergency use program in July targeting essential workers and others at high risk of infection, and by the end of November, it had administered 1.5 million doses using at least three different products: two developed by CNBG and one by Sinovac.
While the efficacy of Sinopharm’s injection lags behind the success rate of more than 90% of rival vaccines from Pfizer Inc and its partner BioNTech and Moderna Inc, it points to the progress China has made in the global race to develop successful Covid-19 vaccines.
Regulatory approval is conditional, granted to vaccines that are urgently needed to deal with major public health emergencies, although full clinical trials have not yet been completed, the China National Medical Products Administration said on Thursday.
The approval came as Britain on Wednesday approved a second Covid-19 vaccine, an injection developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, as it battles a large winter surge driven by a new variant of the virus.
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