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Almost all employees of a Chinese pharmaceutical company and their families received their experimental coronavirus vaccine, the firm said Sunday.
The CoronaVac vaccine, developed by Sinovac Biotech, is currently in the phase of three clinical trials.
Company spokesman Liu Peicheng confirmed that around 3,000 employees and families had been offered the drug on a voluntary basis under China’s emergency use scheme.
Sinovac’s coronavirus vaccine production line, which has an annual production capacity of more than 300 million doses, began operating late last month.
Sinovac products on display at a trade fair. Photo: EPA-EFE
The vaccine’s entry into the mass market is subject to the results of the latest trials, but the company’s chief executive, Yin Weidong, said he expected it to be approved for use as soon as the end of the year.
In July, China approved the emergency use of vaccines for specific groups that were considered to be at high risk of exposure, including medical personnel and border officials.
Beijing was the first city in China to start the emergency use program and tens of thousands of people, including workers at the Xinfadi food market, which was at the center of the capital’s last major outbreak in June, received the Sinovac vaccine. .
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“It will also prevent repeated epidemics in the coming fall and winter seasons,” Yin said at the China International Trade in Services Fair in Beijing.
“If there is an infected person in this place, it will affect hundreds of people. The robust control strategy in China must be improved, and improvement must depend on vaccines.
“The price [of the vaccine] it is unknown at the moment, but not as high as people expect, it should be an acceptable price for everyone. “
Meanwhile, Zhang Yinan, deputy director general of marketing for China National Biotec Group (CNBG), also said that he had been administered the vaccine from his company.
“After testing on animals, I’m willing to test the company’s product to see if it is safe and effective, and there are 150 employees like me who have been vaccinated,” she said at the trade show.
Sinovac and CNBG are conducting large-scale trials abroad as they compete to bring their vaccines to market.
CNBG is expected to complete its phase three clinical trial, which has seen more than 35,000 people receive the vaccine in the United Arab Emirates, in November.
“The UAE has a purchasing intention [agreement] with CNBG and we cannot disclose the exact figure, nor the price, ”Zhang said.
Sinovac says it has received orders from several countries and is currently conducting phase three trials in Turkey, Bangladesh, Brazil and Indonesia.
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In late August, Sinovac and PT Bio Farma, a state-owned Indonesian pharmaceutical company, signed a preliminary agreement for the purchase and supply of CoronaVac, which Liu described as “the largest publicly reported order to date for a company from Chinese vaccines “.
The deal calls for the supply of 40 million doses of CoronaVac semi-finished products between November and March, with more sales likely over the next year. Bio Farma will package the vaccines and supply them to customers in Indonesia.
Sinovac has urged authorities in different countries to ensure that the vaccine can be registered more quickly.
China National Biotec Group’s vaccine is undergoing a large-scale trial in the United Arab Emirates. Photo: Reuters
“For example, if the study we did in Brazil is accepted by other countries in South America, the vaccine can be registered and we can supply it to more countries.” Yin said.
“We call on more countries to accept the results of our current clinical studies and approve a safe and effective vaccine for commercialization as soon as possible. Of course, the biggest vaccine market, the biggest demand and the biggest challenges are all in China. “
Sinovac stated that no serious adverse reactions have been seen in phase three clinical trials, indicating that the vaccine is safe. “The adverse reactions observed were mainly local pain at the injection site, followed by fatigue and weakness, and local swelling, all of which were transient,” Liu said, “only a very few have fever and allergic reactions.”
Last month, both Sinovac and CNBG warned consumers not to fall for online scams in which advertisers offer Covid-19 vaccines for sale.
This article, the Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac, says that thousands of employees and their families received the Covid-19 vaccine that first appeared in the South China Morning Post.
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