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As the global race to acquire Kovid-19 vaccines intensifies, it appears that China is leading with two different ones that are already finding their way to foreign markets: Sinovak and Sinofarm.
The Sinofarm vaccine was approved by the Serbian Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices (ALIMS) on January 18.
A contingent of one million Sinofarm vaccines arrived in Serbia two days before the approval was issued, and the shipment was received at Belgrade airport by President Aleksandar Vučić.
But what do we know about Chinese vaccines and how do they compare to the competition?
Sinofarm’s vaccine has already been distributed to nearly a million people in China as part of an emergency program.
The controversy was caused by the fact that Sinofarm was used before the results of the third phase of the tests were announced.
“It is normal to wait for the analysis of the results of the third phase before expanding the vaccination program under the veil of emergency,” Professor Dale Fisher of the National University of Singapore previously told CNBC.
Professor Fischer says such a move is “unusual” and adds that it would be “unacceptable” in the West.
What is the difference between Chinese vaccines and other vaccines?
Coronavak works by using killed virus particles to expose the body’s immune system to the virus without the risk of causing a severe disease response.
The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are mRNA vaccines, which means that part of the genetic code of the coronavirus is injected into the body and causes it to produce viral protein, but not all of the virus, which is enough to train the immune system to attack.
“Koronavak is a more traditional method [pravljenja vakcine] it has been used successfully in many vaccines known as rabies, “Luo Dahai, associate professor at Nanyang Technological University, told the BBC.
“MRNAs are new types of vaccines and [trenutno] there are no examples of its successful application to the population, “added Professor Luo.
What about the Sonovac vaccine?
Clinical trials of the Sonovac vaccine have also been conducted in Turkey and Brazil, and the first countries in the world to approve Sonovac in December 2020 were the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and in early 2021, Indonesia followed suit.
It is claimed that one of the main advantages of the Sonovac vaccine is that it can be stored at a standard refrigerator temperature, between two and eight degrees Celsius, as well as the Oxford vaccine, which is made from a genetically modified virus that causes colds in chimpanzees.
Moderna vaccine should be stored at -20 degrees Celsius and Pfizer vaccine at -70 degrees Celsius.
This means that both the Chinese vaccine and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine are much more suitable for developing countries that may not be able to store large quantities of the vaccine at such low temperatures.
How effective is it?
It’s hard to say at this point.
According to the scientific journal Lancet, we currently only have data on the first and second phase of the Koronavak exam.
Zhu Fengcai, one of the authors of the article, says that these results, based on 144 participants in the first phase of the trial and 600 in the second phase of the trial, show that the vaccine is “suitable for emergency use.”
In September, Yin from Sinovak said the tests were conducted on more than 1,000 volunteers, “some of whom showed only mild fatigue or discomfort, no more than 5 percent.”
In early October, the final phase of the investigation began in Brazil, which has the highest number of deaths from the corona virus after the United States.
They were briefly suspended in November after the death of a volunteer, but resumed after the death was determined not to be related to the vaccine.
Professor Luo explains that it is difficult at this time to assess the efficacy of the vaccine “given the limited data available.”
“Based on preliminary data, … Coronavac appears to be an effective vaccine, but we have to wait for the results of the phase three trial,” he said.
“These trials were randomized, observer blind, placebo controlled” with thousands of participants. This is the only way to show that the vaccine is safe and effective for the entire population.
Watch the video: How to vaccinate 7.7 billion people?
How many doses can they produce per year?
The son will be able to produce 300 million doses a year in a newly built 20,000-square-meter production facility, the company’s president told Chinese state media.
As with all other vaccines, two doses are needed, which means that they can currently only vaccinate 150 million people a year, just over a tenth of China’s total population.
However, the company has already delivered doses to Indonesia and has also arranged deliveries for Turkey, Brazil and Chile.
Analysts point to China’s desire to win the diplomatic race for vaccines globally.
This is supported by the alleged declaration of Chinese President Xi Jinping that he will allocate two billion dollars for the African continent and offer a loan of one billion dollars to the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean for the purchase of vaccines.
It is not known what the terms of the loan could be.
“Beijing will certainly use a life-saving vaccine for commercial and diplomatic victory,” Jacob Mardel, an analyst at MERIX, told ABC News.
„[Peking] it has something that countries desperately need and will try to present the vaccine deliveries as a charity. “
The price of the vaccine is unknown, but earlier this year, the Chinese city of Jiaxing offered two doses of the vaccine for 200 yuan ($ 29.75; £ 22) per dose.
Bio Farma, an Indonesian state company, said it would cost about 10 euros.
That’s still a lot more than the Oxford vaccine, which costs $ 4 per dose, but less than Modernina, which costs $ 33 per dose.
Moderna has announced that it intends to deliver 500 million doses during 2021, and AstraZeneca has announced production of 700 million doses by the end of the first quarter of 2021.
What about the Sinofarm vaccine?
Sinofarm is a Chinese state company that is developing two vaccines against Kovid-19 and they work like Sinovak.
On the penultimate day of December 2020, Sinofarm announced that the trials in the third phase showed that this vaccine is 79 percent effective, which is less than that of Pfizer or the modern one.
However, the UAE authorities, which approved the Sinofarm vaccine in early 2021, announced that the efficiency is 86%, based on the first results of the third phase of testing.
A Sinofarm spokeswoman declined to explain the difference in the results, saying that detailed data would be released by the end of January, according to a Reuters report.
But even before the tests in the third phase, this vaccine was distributed to almost a million people in China under an emergency program.
In mid-December of last year, the trial of the Sinofarm vaccine in Peru was suspended due to an “extremely unfavorable event” that affected one of the participants.
A break from clinical trials is not uncommon in the pharmaceutical industry.
In September, the UK stopped testing the second vaccine because one of the participants had a negative reaction.
Testing continued when it was determined that the reaction had nothing to do with the vaccine.
China has largely managed to halt the spread of the coronavirus infection, and life is slowly but surely returning to new normal flows.
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