A coronavirus vaccine developed by Chinese drugmaker Sinopharm is 79% effective in protecting people from the coronavirus, according to interim data released Wednesday by the company Sinopharm..
The results for the two-shot vaccine were based on interim analysis from Phase 3 trials.
Officials plan to vaccinate 50 million people in the country by the middle of next month, just before the Lunar Near Year holiday when hundreds of millions of Chinese travel across the country. Estimates say that Chinese traveling for the holiday will take more than 3 billion trips in the six weeks around the New Year.
The Sinopharm vaccine appears to be less effective than those developed by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, which have shown an efficacy rate of 95%. The rate announced by Sinopharm is also lower than the 86% efficacy rate reported from clinical trials in the United Arab Emirates. The Sinopharma vaccine, unlike the Pfizer vaccine does not need to be kept frozen during distribution.
The company has a second vaccine in late-stage trials. Despite the lack of regulatory approval, its vaccines have already been used on hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizens since July under an emergency use program for high-risk groups.
