Sinopharm vaccine File photo:VCG

 
The World Health Organization (WHO) has released data from its recent assessment of the Chinese COVID-19 vaccines developed by Sinopharm and Sinovac for the WHO Emergency Use Listing Procedure.

According to the data posted on the WHO website, the Sinopharm vaccine had an overall efficacy of 78.1 percent in multi-country Phase 3 Trial and 78.7 percent efficacy in preventing hospitalization. 

"No safety concerns identified from pre-clinical or repro/tox studies," the report summarized.

The Sinopharm vaccine has been authorized by 45 countries and jurisdictions for use in adults over 18, and more than 65 million doses have been administered through emergency use programs.

Meanwhile, the Sinovac vaccine has been authorized by 32 countries and 260 million doses of the vaccine have been distributed to the public in domestic and overseas markets.

Its protection against COVID-19 symptomatic infection was 84 percent in Turkey, 67 percent in Chile, 65 percent in Indonesia and 51 percent in Brazil. And its efficacy in preventing hospitalization was 100 percent in Turkey and in Brazil and 85 percent in Chile.

The WHO report also said that based on pre-clinical and repro/tox studies there were no safety concerns with the Sinovac vaccine.

"We are very confident that two doses of CoronaVac are efficacious in preventing PCR confirmed COVID-19 in adults (18-59 years)," the report concluded.

The decision date for the Sinopharm vaccine is the end of this week, and for Sinovac on May 5, according to earlier reports.

The WHO has listed Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, Astrazeneca-SK Bio, Serum Institute of India and Janssen vaccines for emergency use.

Global Times