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Nearly one million people have taken an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by the Chinese company Sinopharm, the firm said, although it has yet to provide any clear clinical evidence of efficacy.
China has been administering Covid-19 experimental vaccines to people, including state employees, international students, and essential workers heading abroad since July.
The president of Sinopharm told the media this week that nearly a million people they have now received their vaccine for emergency use, although he did not provide a specific number.
“We have not received a single report of a severe adverse reaction, and only a few had some mild symptoms,” Liu Jingzhen said in an interview republished by the state firm on Wednesday.
China has been optimistic about developing its vaccine for the new virus, which first emerged in the center of the country late last year, with four vaccines now in late testing.
Many of the trials are taking place abroad, as China has largely controlled the virus within its borders.
Sinopharm is testing two vaccines in late-stage trials in countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Peru and Argentina.
The company claimed this week to be a “world leader in all aspects” of vaccine development, although it did not offer clinical evidence from ongoing trials.
Instead, he cited anecdotal experiences of those who have been vaccinated, including “foreign construction personnel, diplomats and students” who, he said, have visited more than 150 countries after vaccination without being infected.
President Xi Jinping has declared that any Chinese vaccine would be a “global public good” after the country came under fire, particularly from the United States, for its early handling of the outbreak.
Many of those who have been vaccinated in China are not formal participants in drug trials and are said to have done so voluntarily.
Competition has intensified between pharmaceutical companies competing to develop a Covid-19 injection, with two vaccines, one from the American company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, and another from the American firm Moderna, which released test data to large scale this month showing their hits were around 95 percent effective against Covid-19.
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