Brazilian institute says Chinese vaccine effective

 

(FILES) In this file photo taken on December 03, 2020, Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria shows to members of the media a package of the CoronaVac vaccine as containers carrying doses of it are unloaded from a cargo plane that arrived from China at Guarulhos International Airport in Guarulhos, near Sao Paulo, Brazil. – The Brazilian institute Butantan assured that the tests of the Coronavac vaccine, which it develops with the Chinese laboratory SinoVac, were satisfactory and that it hoped to start applying the immunizer in Brazil in January 2020, although it refrained from giving details about the studies. (Photo by NELSON ALMEIDA / AFP)

 

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — Clinical trials of the CoronaVac coronavirus vaccine developed by Chinese laboratory Sinovac have “reached the efficacy threshold” demanded by the World Health Organization, the Brazilian institute charged with its production and distribution said on Wednesday.

However, the Butantan Institute didn’t publish the results of those trials — the last before authorization.

“We’re reached the efficacy threshold that allows us to seek an emergency use” authorization from Brazil’s Anvisa regulatory agency, said Butantan director Dimas Covas.

He said a clause in the Sinovac contract insisted that these phase III test results could only be made public once all clinical trials around the world have been completed.

In Brazil, 13,000 volunteers took part in the trials, which were also performed in Turkey, Indonesia and China.

“Our entire program remains unchanged. The production of doses is continuing in our factory and the immunization campaign will begin as expected on January 25,” said Sao Paulo state health secretary Jean Gorinchteyn.

The WHO’s efficacy threshold is 50 percent but other laboratories, such as Pfizer and BioNTech that are collaborating on a vaccine that has already been administered to thousands of people in the United States and Britain, have reached 90 percent efficacy.

Covas said the federal government would order 100 million CoronaVac doses, more than double the 46 million initially publicized.

Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria (C), Sao Paulo state Health Secretary Jean Gorinchteyn (L) and Butantan Institute director Dimas Covas (R), pose for photos holding doses of the CoronaVac vaccine against COVID-19 next to a container unloaded from a cargo plane that arrived from China at Guarulhos International Airport in Guarulhos, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, on December 18, 2020. – Brazil received Friday the third lot with 1,900,000 doses of the CoronaVac vaccine, developed by the Chinese laboratory Sinovac Biotech. (Photo by NELSON ALMEIDA / AFP)

Immunization has been a highly politicized issue in Brazil where far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has repeatedly said he won’t take a vaccine while he’s also tried to discredit the CoronaVac jab.

The Butantan Institute is supported by Sao Paulo state, whose governor Joao Doria repeatedly clashed with Bolsonaro over the country’s coronavirus response and is expected to challenge the incumbent in the 2022 presidential elections.

Brazil has suffered the second largest number of coronavirus deaths in the world after the US with 188,000 dead.


© Agence France-Presse

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