Sinopharm, a state-owned pharmaceutical company in China, claims their COVID-19 vaccine could be available by December as the final stage trials began. The trials will take about three months, so the jab may be its early Christmas gift.
However, Chinese authorities earlier feared that since there were not enough new COVID-19 cases in China, which may halt the testing and push back the vaccine until early next year. Instead, the company set up trial sites abroad for phase 3. In the United Arab Emirates, Sinopharm hoped to gather 15,000 volunteers for the human trials.
According to Daily Mail, Sinopharm chief said they can produce 220 million vaccine doses per year. However, with a 1.4 billion Chinese population, the United Kingdom and the United States may not be able to get hold of the vaccine if proven effective.
Also, the most recent trial results published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on August 13 showed that people would need two to three shots to get the complete protection. The first two trials also showed that the vaccine has triggered antibodies among volunteers and seemed to be safe. While these results seemed promising to help in the recovery of a COVID-19 patient, the vaccines are not yet proven to protect a healthy person from contracting the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, Chairman of Sinopharm Group Liu Jingzhen promised to bring the vaccine to the market at a low price of 1,000 yuan or about $144 per two shots. Jingzhen also said the company will register the inactivated vaccine after the third stage of international clinical trials ends, according to the Guangming Ribao newspaper.
At least eight vaccine candidates from China are currently going through different stages of clinical trials. They are competing with drug manufacturers from the U.S., Germany, and the U.K. in the race to produce the first clinically-proven COVID-19 vaccine to aid in the coronavirus pandemic.
Read also: CanSino Receives China's First Country Patent for COVID-19 Vaccine
Sinopharm's vaccine promising results
Sinopharm is working with experts at the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products and the Beijing Institute of Biological Products to develop the vaccine.
Sinopharm's candidate is an inactivated-type of vaccine, which is produced by cultivating the virus in a lab and then killing it. This kind of vaccines is being used against measles, rabies, and influenza.
It would require about 2-3 doses to get the complete efficacy since the immunity it gives is not as strong as live vaccines or those created from the actual virus.
During the trial, 96 healthy adult volunteers from China aged between 18 and 59 years old were assigned to receive three doses of the vaccine with either 2.5, 5, and 10 μg/dose while a control group received a three shots of placebo. Each shot is given after 28 days.
Seven days after receiving the first shot, 20.8%, 16.7%, and 25% of patients respectively in the low-dose, medium-dose, and high-dose groups experienced adverse effects.
While after the second shot, there were no serious adverse reactions recorded while most volunteers experience pain in the injection site. Also, antibody levels have increased after the second jab.
Meanwhile, Russia surprised the world when it claimed to have developed the first vaccine against COVID-19 on August 1. Later on August 11, President Vladimir Putin announced that the locally-developed vaccine called Sputnik V has received the regulatory approval after less than two months of human trials.
Read also: Russia Offers Vaccine to the US, But Declined! These Two Countries Say Otherwise
This article is owned by Tech Times.
Written by CJ Robles
