Sinovac: Brazil results show Chinese vaccine 50.4% effective

[Nilgiri]

Sinovac: Brazil results show Chinese vaccine 50.4% effective

Latest results show Sinovac's Covid-19 vaccine is less effective in Brazil than previously suggested.

www.bbc.com

A coronavirus vaccine developed by China's Sinovac has been found to be 50.4% effective in Brazilian clinical trials, according to the latest results released by researchers.

It shows the vaccine is significantly less effective than previous data suggested - barely over the 50% needed for regulatory approval.

The Chinese vaccine is one of two that the Brazilian government has lined up.

Brazil has been one of the countries worst affected by coronavirus.

Sinovac, a Beijing-based biopharmaceutical company, is behind CoronaVac, an inactivated vaccine. It works by using killed viral particles to expose the body's immune system to the virus without risking a serious disease response.

Several countries, including Indonesia, Turkey and Singapore, have placed orders for the vaccine.

Last week researchers at the Butantan Institute, which has been conducting the trials in Brazil, announced that the vaccine had a 78% efficacy against "mild-to-severe" Covid-19 cases.

But on Tuesday they revealed that calculations for this figure did not include data from a group of "very mild infections" among those who received the vaccine that did not require clinical assistance.

With the inclusion of this data, the efficacy rate is now 50.4%, said researchers.

But Butantan stressed that the vaccine is 78% effective in preventing mild cases that needed treatment and 100% effective in staving off moderate to serious cases.

The Sinovac trials have yielded different results across different countries.

Last month Turkish researchers said the Sinovac vaccine was 91.25% effective, while Indonesia, which rolled out its mass vaccination programme on Wednesday, said it was 65.3% effective. Both were interim results from late-stage trials.

There has been concern and criticism that Chinese vaccine trials are not subject to the same scrutiny and levels of transparency as its Western counterparts.

Both the Sinovac vaccine and the vaccine developed by Oxford University and pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca have requests for emergency use authorisation pending with regulators in Brazil.

The latest news comes as Brazil is dealing with a major spike in cases. The country currently has the third highest number of Covid-19 cases in the world at over 8.1 million, just behind the US and India.

The BBC World Service's Americas editor Candace Piette says the country is suffering one of the world's deadliest outbreaks but as yet, has not announced when its vaccination programme will begin.

The delay has been caused in large part by the government's haphazard and divided approach to vaccination, says our correspondent.

 

[xizhimen]

Southeast Asia is embracing China’s Sinovac vaccine despite its confusing efficacy data

Jan. 13 2021

In a livestream from the Indonesian presidential secretariat’s YouTube channel, the country’s leader Joko Widodo rolled up his sleeves to receive his shot of the Sinovac coronavirus vaccine, kicking off the nation’s mass inoculation campaign.

His vaccination comes just two days after Indonesia became the first country outside China to grant emergency use authorization to privately Chinese biotech firm Sinovac’s Covid-19 shot. Indonesia has already secured 330 million doses of the vaccine, and so far about 29 million doses have been delivered to the country.

Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, countries have also readily embraced the Sinovac, even as wildly different efficacy rates have been recorded for its vaccine.

What was reported by Brazil’s public Butantan Institute, the country’s major vaccine provider, last week as a 78% efficacy rate was tampered by rumblings that it was actually less than 60% effective, before the institute sharply revised the total efficacy rate to 50.4% yesterday. Over 12,000 volunteers took part in those trials, the vaccine’s largest.

That’s much lower than the 91.25% and 65% efficacy rates Turkey and Indonesia had previously reported from separate small clinical trials, respectively. Limited data have been published from any of these trials, however, raising questions of transparency.

The relatively low efficacy rate will “have implications for China’s vaccine diplomacy as well as its domestic vaccination campaign,” noted Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
It may also complicate matters for the World Health Organization, which is currently assessing whether to add the Sinovac vaccine to its emergency-use listing.

“Because it is at the borderline of the WHO-imposed cutoff efficacy rate [of 50%], the WHO might find it not so easy to make the decision to pre-qualify the China-made vaccine because…it may raise doubts over whether the WHO made the decision to defer to the Chinese government’s request, so there’s the question of credibility and reputation at stake,” said Huang.

To be clear, a 50% efficacy, while not ideal, is still better than nothing. Antony Fauci, the US’s leading infectious disease expert, had last summer said that a 50% to 60% efficacy rate would be acceptable. For comparison, seasonal flu vaccines are typically 40% to 60% effective.

Florian Krammer, an immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, gave the following verdict on Sinovac in light of the latest results out of Brazil: “Likely still useful. But not really my first choice…”

So far, the conflicting data does not appear to have deterred Southeast Asian nations from placing large orders for the Sinovac vaccine.

The Philippines announced yesterday that its first ever batch of coronavirus vaccines will be from Sinovac, with the first 50,000 doses allotted for the country’s frontline medical workers and no other vaccines from other drugmakers expected to be available until at least June.

Thailand is currently processing applications from Sinovac and AstraZeneca to register their vaccines for use in the country. Though the overwhelming bulk of Thailand’s vaccine orders have been for AstraZeneca’s, Sinovac’s is expected to be ready next month, while the latter’s won’t be ready until May.

Malaysia has also procured 14 million Sinovac doses, in addition to 25 million shots from Pfizer-BioNTech and 6.4 million doses from AstraZeneca.

Southeast Asia is embracing China’s Sinovac vaccine despite its confusing efficacy data

In the largest trial of the private Chinese biotech firm's vaccine, it just crossed the efficacy cut-off set by many regulators.

qz.com

 

[Rajendra Chola]

As pure as water. So safe.

 

[xizhimen]

As pure as water. So safe.

You can use your own vaccines, if you are able to make one at all.

 

[Saithan]

You can use your own vaccines, if you are able to make one at all.

Well even oxford developed vaccine has higher efficiency and it costs 1/6th of Biontech/pfizers.

How much does Sinovac cost compared to pfizers ?

 

[Nutuk]

Dutch sources say that the Pfizer-Biontech vaccin is 80-85% efficient and Moderna vaccin is 50% efficient.

None of the vaccins have high efficiency rates, it is not possible either at such short time to develop the vaccin. Good vaccins need years of testing and improving.

 

[xizhimen]

Well even oxford developed vaccine has higher efficiency and it costs 1/6th of Biontech/pfizers.

How much does Sinovac cost compared to pfizers ?

The result reports vary greatly from country to country, ranging from over 90% to 50%, and China doesn't force anyone to buy her vaccines, you can go for oxford one.

 

[Indos]

Well even oxford developed vaccine has higher efficiency and it costs 1/6th of Biontech/pfizers.

How much does Sinovac cost compared to pfizers ?

We need to wait Indonesian gov open the 2021 budget revision to see the number. Indonesia only buy the raw material, the process to make it become vaccine will be conducted by Biofarma, Indonesian state owned pharmacy company.

Indonesia has also bought Pfizer vaccine around 50 million dose. Indonesia bought Sinovac raw material enough for 100 million dose. We have secured around 350 million vaccine dose where Sinovac is the only vaccine we will produce with cooperation with Sinovac

 

[crixus]

I can bet even CCP members will not gonna use the Chinese vaccine but again why they need a vaccine when they have the antidote for this bioweapon of mass destruction .

What business model first spread disease then make money by selling vaccine...what a business model

 

[xizhimen]

I can bet even CCP members will not gonna use the Chinese vaccine

You bet is wrong again, many government civil servants had already got vaccinated in millions so far. you bet too much, refrain from betting all the time.

 

[xizhimen]

Indonesian President Joko Widodo receives Chinese vaccine​

 

[crixus]

You bet is wrong again, many government civil servants had already got vaccinated in millions so far. you bet too much, refrain from betting all the time.

You mean made in China Truth ...oh yes we believe that

 

[xizhimen]

You mean made in China Truth ...oh yes we believe that

Ok, no CCP members get vaccinated, are you happy now, lol..

 

[crixus]

Ok, no CCP members get vaccinated, are you happy now, lol..

I am not happy you guys literally screwed/killed a lot of poors around the globe with your Wuhan virus

 

[xizhimen]

I am not happy you guys literally screwed/killed a lot of poors around the globe with your Wuhan virus

US , Italy and Spain all registered Covid virus long before Wuhan outbreak, you can't give them something that they already had.

 

[Nutuk]

According to Astra Zeneca (Oxford vaccin) their vaccin has efficiency of 70% (but such should be tested by independent labs)

My car dealer also promised with my previous car it had efficiency of 20km/liter but I have never seen that even when my car was brand new

 

[crixus]

US , Italy and Spain all registered Covid virus long before Wuhan outbreak, you can't give them something that they already had.

Seems like this is what you get taught in China, good for you

 

[xizhimen]

Seems like this is what you get taught in China, good for you

Google and find out where the news are from.

 

[crixus]

Google and find out where the news are from.

You mean made in China or finance by China news

 

[Nilgiri]

As pure as water. So safe.

It is more a case of it not being able to prevent mild case (with no treatment needed) of it half the time. (Still bad w.r.t transmission spread etc ofc):

But on Tuesday they revealed that calculations for this figure did not include data from a group of "very mild infections" among those who received the vaccine that did not require clinical assistance.

With the inclusion of this data, the efficacy rate is now 50.4%, said researchers.

Brazil and rest say its good at preventing strong and serious cases from occurring:

But Butantan stressed that the vaccine is 78% effective in preventing mild cases that needed treatment and 100% effective in staving off moderate to serious cases.

=================

As for the typical 50 cent reply of "if you (India) are even able to make one":

Brazil's Bolsonaro asks India to expedite Covid vaccine shipment as delays loom

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/brazils-bolsonaro-asks-india-to-expedite-covid-vaccine-shipment-as-delays-loom/articleshow/80182336.cms RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to expedite a shipment of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine amid...

defencehub.live

CCP salt is very hilarious.

Can't wait for this one to be shown way better than "made in China" 50%....its Brazil in both cases to verify and measure.

50%----50 cent...