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A trial of a Chinese vaccine in Turkey was found to be 91.25% effective in preventing COVID-19 in a small group of participants in a large-scale trial, Reuters reported on Friday, citing Turkish health authorities.
The announcement is a confidence boost for Beijing-based vaccine maker Sinovac after delaying the announcement of its trial results in Brazil on Wednesday.
Serhat Unal, from the Turkish government’s COVID-19 advisory council, said the efficacy was based on a preliminary analysis of a small group that included 1,322 of the more than 7,000 participants in the local trial that began in September. Unal added that the efficacy is likely to “increase” as the trial continues to collect data.
“We are now confident that the vaccine is effective and safe (to use) in the Turks,” said Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.
On Wednesday, Brazilian researchers said Sinovac’s vaccine, dubbed CoronaVac, is more than 50% effective, citing a trial involving about 13,000 people. But the Chinese company has asked its Brazilian partner for two more weeks before announcing the exact number, so they can analyze data from other trials, including Turkey’s, together.
The Turkish announcement came five months after the Chinese government gave the product the green light for emergency use among high-risk groups, such as front-line medical workers.
Sinovac is the second Chinese vaccine that has been reported to be effective in preventing COVID-19 in trials abroad.
Earlier this month, authorities in the United Arab Emirates said that a vaccine made by Beijing-based Sinopharm is 86% effective in preventing COVID-19. Since then, the governments of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have approved the product.
Both Sinopharm and Sinovac have not published detailed data from the trials.
Publisher: Bibek Bhandari.
(Header image: A container containing doses of CoronaVac vaccine is unloaded from a cargo plane at Guarulhos International Airport in Guarulhos, Brazil, on November 19, 2020. Nelson Almeida / AFP via People Visual)
