Its developer Beijing Biological Products Institute, a unit of Sinopharm subsidiary China National Biotec Group (CNBG), said that it had applied to the National Medical Products Administration for conditional approval of the vaccine.
"I would be very surprised to see any western country approving this Chinese vaccine without a lot more data".
The Sinopharm vaccine's results show that it is less effective than others that have been approved in other countries. Pfizer-BioNTech has received authorization in more than 40 countries while Moderna has been authorized in the United States and Canada. "And once more data is compiled on human trials and if the country of the vaccine's origin is trustworthy, the vaccine could also have a shot". Russia's Sputnik V vaccine reportedly has a 91% efficacy rate. Both Moderna's and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have shown similar efficacy levels of almost 95 per cent, which the official media here said was beyond predictions and drove up the public's expectation for Chinese inactivated vaccines.
However, the "premise" was that it would be free for the public in China.
"The general view is you have to vaccinate 60 to 70 percent to establish universal protection", Zeng added.
The Sinopharm vaccine, like the AstraZeneca one, could be easier for countries around the world to handle since they can be stored at normal fridge temperatures.
Sinovac and CanSino Biologics, two other Chinese pharmaceutical companies, are also developing vaccines.
It has also been slow to complete Phase 3 trials, which had to be conducted overseas due to China's success at curbing the spread of Covid-19 within its own borders. Reported side effects of the vaccines are also milder than expected, Yang said. Pakistan's science minister said Thursday that his government will buy 1.2 million doses of a Sinopharm shot, two days after its death toll topped 10,000.
The Beijing Institute vaccine is already under mass production, though officials did not answer questions about current production capacity.
Sinopharm's inactivated vaccines have been administered to almost one million people for emergency use in China and no serious adverse reactions have been reported, the paper said.
Given that Sao Paulo, the richest state, has already bought 50 million syringes and plans to buy another 50 million, the entire country would need some 320 million syringes which would cost at most 120 million reais ($230 million), Fraccaro said. The virus emerged a year ago in a market in the central city of Wuhan.
Officials have said the vaccine standards were developed in "close co-operation" with the World Health Organization.
"We will have the interim efficacy analysis when the number of infected cases reaches 40".
The WHO and partners expect to begin Covax delivers in 2021.
