Sinopharm, CanSinoBIO seek nod for use in China

A unit of China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) and CanSino Biologics Inc (CanSinoBIO) have applied for public use of their COVID-19 vaccines in China, which if granted, would mean China has four locally developed approved vaccines.

While China has yet to approve vaccines developed by Western drug makers, it has granted authorization to domestic products for use in select groups or by the wider public, which have also gained ground in developing countries battling a surge in coronavirus infections.

Sinopharm affiliate Wuhan Institute of Biological Products said on Wednesday its vaccine has an efficacy rate of 72.51 percent against the COVID-19 disease caused by the virus, citing interim analysis of late-stage clinical trial data.

The vaccine has already been given to limited groups of people at higher infection risk under an emergency vaccination program started in July.

It is one of two candidates from Sinopharm that have entered Phase 3 clinical trials overseas.

The other, developed by a Beijing-based subsidiary of Sinopharm, received public use approval in December.

In a separate filing on Wednesday, CanSinoBIO said interim analysis of data from its multi-country trial showed its candidate one-shot vaccine, known as Ad5-nCoV, had a success rate of 68.83 percent at preventing all symptomatic disease and 95.47 percent at preventing severe disease 14 days after vaccination.

This fell to an efficacy rate of 65.28 percent at preventing all symptomatic cases.