Daily US Times: The Chinese government has given conditional approval for general people’s use of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by state-owned drugmaker Sinopharm.
The move came a day after Sinopharm said interim data showed its leading Covid vaccine had a 79% efficacy rate in phase three trials, without providing more details.
Several Chinese-made Covid vaccines at a late trial stage are already in use in China after being granted emergency licences.
The notorious pandemic emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019.
It has since spread across the world, but China has managed to bring infection rates down to very low levels through strict anti-virus measures.
The search for the source of the virus has led to tensions with the West. The US and Australia – among a number of other countries – raised questions about whether China was fully transparent when the virus first emerged there.
Thursday’s announcement concerning the vaccine made by the Sinopharm, or China National Pharmaceutical Group, is China’s first general approval of a homemade jab – and it is being seen as potentially a major step towards immunising the world’s largest population.
Chen Shifei, the deputy commissioner of China’s National Medical Products Administration, mde the nnouncememt at a news conference in Beijing.
He sid: “After a series of strict reviews, verification, test and data analysis in accordance with the law and procedures, it is concluded that the known and potential benefits of Sinopharm’s new inactivated coronavirus vaccine are bigger than the known and potential risks, and it fully meets the pre-set requirements of conditional marketing standards.”
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