China’s Sinovac Biotech Coronavirus Vaccine Shows Promising Results In Early Data

The COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd seems promising in Phase 3 clinical trials, said the governor of Brazil’s São Paulo state on Wednesday, September 9.

It is expected that Sinovac’s coronavirus vaccine can be available for public use in Brazil by the end of December 2020. However, the final results of the last-stage clinical trials will indeed be considered before making that decision.

Governor Joao Doria revealed on Wednesday that the Phase 2 clinical trials of the coronavirus vaccine showed 98 percent immune response in the elderly.

It is known that around 9,000 Brazilian nationals are participating in Phase 3 clinical trials involving Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine. The trial is being conducted at 12 locations, including Butantan Institute in Sao Paulo city and the capital Brasilia.

At the moment, many coronavirus vaccines are being developed and some of them are being tested in humans in late-stage clinical trials.

AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine, which has been developed collaboratively by the pharmaceutical company and Oxford University is also being tested in humans. However, the trial was stopped abruptly after one of the recipients of the shot suffered from some serious illness. The details of the illness have not been shared as yet and the company is investigating whether the illness developed due to the shot or if it is unrelated to it.

Earlier in August, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin also announced the approval for the world’s first coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V. However, later-stage clinical trials of this vaccine have neither been conducted nor concluded, which has sparked concerns among the global medical community as well as public health experts.

Brazil recently announced that its hospital group DASA SA has agreed to conduct Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical studies for coronavirus vaccine developed by COVAXX. The country has emerged as a testing ground for pharmaceutical companies to test their coronavirus vaccines.

Brazil has the third-highest number of coronavirus cases in the world after the U.S. and India.