Beijing announced on Thursday that it had approved “under conditions” the marketing of the vaccine from the pharmaceutical group Sinopharm. A vaccination of 60% to 70% of the 1.4 billion Chinese will be necessary to ensure “the protection of the entire population”.
- Beijing has announced that it has approved the marketing of the vaccine developed by the Chinese laboratory Sinopharm.
- With an efficiency of 79.43%, it should be given priority to people at risk, before being deployed on a large scale.
- The government is aiming for a vaccination coverage of 60 to 70% to prevent the circulation of the virus.
After the vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Moderna and Sputnik V, developed by the Russian research institute Gamaleya, it is the turn of China to launch on the market its very first vaccine against Covid-19 .
Produced by the Chinese pharmaceutical group Sinopharm, this new vaccine would be 79.43% effective, less than what its competitors Pfizer-BioNTech (95%) and Moderna (94.1%) announced. This first Chinese vaccine has been approved by Beijing “under conditions” and should soon be put on the market. To date, Sinopharm is the only Chinese group to have released vaccine efficacy figures, although clinical trial analyzes have not yet been completed.
Vaccinate 60-70% of the population
If the marketing was approved even before the publication of the final results of the clinical trials, it is because China does not want to be excluded from the global race for the vaccine. The country also prides itself on having an ambitious vaccination policy. The conditional approval of Sinopharm’s vaccine should thus make it possible to start vaccination among at-risk populations, Deputy Health Minister Zeng Yixin said at a press conference.
Ultimately, the country is aiming for a vaccination of “60% to 70%” of its population, i.e. 1.4 billion people to ensure “the protection of the whole population”continued the deputy minister, who also clarified that the vaccine would be “provided free to all”.
5 million people already vaccinated
However, there are still outstanding questions. The first is Chinese production capacity. Although vaccination will be optional, no mention was made during the press conference of a more detailed vaccination schedule, even though Chinese authorities have indicated that 5 million people have already been administered different doses of vaccines. Three million vaccinations have also been carried out on people at risk since December 15, without any serious side effects having been observed.
Sinopharm’s vaccine is not the only product in China. The country is currently testing 13 other vaccines on humans, including 4 others in phase 3 clinical trials.
