WHO: no emergency approval for Sinovac but for Sinopharm

[Kiujunn]

Sinopharm is a  state-enterprise with 2 vaccines, from Beijing (the one I am talking about here, efficiency 79%) and from Wuhan. Good reputation.  This is the vaccine China uses mainly for her population. Exported to UAE, Seychelles (see separate thread) and others.

 

Sinovac is a private company,  well known for vaccine scandals.  Their vaccine is mostly exported, and has already been exported when not yet approved in China herself.

Efficiency maybe 50%, study results vary between more than 90% and much less than 50%.

Minority owned by CP, Thailand's biggest conglomerate and owner of Thai 7-11.

 

Thailand uses Sinovac. Since yesterday also  for the elderly, originally they should get locally made AstraZeneca.

 

All Chinese vaccines are conventional vaccines (inactivated virus).

The Chinese said, a pandemic is not the time for experiments. 

Their competitors say, China just can't produce mRNA or vector-based vaccines. 

This explains the low efficiency (their leading virologist suggested mix with western vaccines). On the other hand, one would not expect unheard-of side- effects as with AstraZeneca, because it's a well-proven approach.

Unfortunately,  their were some incidents with Sinovac in Thailand. These problems were quickly resolved?swept under the carpet?

 

Sinopharm (Beijing version) has now been given WHO emergency approval. 

Personally,  I think it's the right decision, although the boss of the WHO is China's man.

 

It's all over the news.

FT link may be read in browser for free (limited number of articles)

https://www.ft.com/content/7220cbdd-4b8c-49f1-9cf7-5146a691adb6

 

 

Edited May 8, 2021 by Kiujunn

[internationalism]

china has 5 vax. They do also develop more.

great to hear sinopharm beijing is WHO approved, but I don't agree with your bias that Tedros is china man - it undermines that WHO approval.

 

as to sinovac, it's highly suspicious that thailand imports it, and not the other ones from china (or from anywhere else, including india, russia), with better efficiency.

availability is what counts now. The second wave find thailand empty handed and they had to make emergency deals. The AZ, already contracted, refused to help, at the end sending from Korea 117k out of the 200k doses - a minuscule supply for VIP's.

 

but sinovac is not that bad, as you make them. The EU is also looking into importing it.

 

"In July, Sinovac launched a Phase 3 trial in Brazil, followed by others in Indonesia and Turkey.
In that same month, Chinese government gave CoronaVac an emergency approval for limited use. In October, authorities in the eastern Chinese city of Jiaxing announced they were giving CoronaVac to people in relatively high-risk jobs, including medical workers, port inspectors and public service personnel.
The scientists running the Phase 3 trials began announcing early results at the end of December and continued to update them as new cases of Covid-19 arose. While the overall efficacy of the vaccine was lower in the Brazil trial, it showed stronger protection against severe forms of the disease. No one in the Brazil trial who received Sinovac had to be hospitalized. ...

On May 4, the European Medicines Agency said it was launching a rolling review of CoronaVac, which will accelerate Sinovac’s marketing authorization if the company decides to apply for one."

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html

https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/ema-starts-rolling-review-covid-19-vaccine-vero-cell-inactivated

 

There would be problems for all covid vax, they have only approval under emergency. Each country decides which to use and abandon.

I don't know reason why thailand has increased use to over 60, possibly new data on their own, based on over 1mln doses given for the last 2 months.

 

 

[Kiujunn]

23 minutes ago, internationalism said:

china has 5 vax

"has"?

 

CanSino is still experimental,  but already exported.  Reminds me of Sputnik.

Same for Anhui Zhifei's vaccine. 

Approved in places like Pakistan, Uzbekistan.

 

Quite a new meaning of the verb "have".

[internationalism]

	CanSino	Ad5	3	Approved in China. Emergency use in other countries.
	Sinopharm	Inactivated	3	Approved in China, U.A.E., Bahrain. Emergency use in other countries.
	Sinovac	Inactivated	3	Approved in China. Emergency use in other countries.
	Sinopharm-Wuhan	Inactivated	3	Approved in China. Limited use in U.A.E.

 

 

all vax, as those above and mentioned Anhui, are experimental use. 

Even those already approved by the WHO.

all are exported all over the world.

No point in putting anybody down for their achievements.

 

[internationalism]

WHO decision on approval of sinovac will be given within days, Sputnik under assessment 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-56967973

 

so you are mistaken on sinovac and sputnik

[cormanr7]

Actually China is also working on an mRNA vaccine, some details here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7377714/. It goes under the name of ARCoV and final trials are supposed to start 'overseas' in May 2021 (https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/chinas-mrna-covid-19-vaccine-may-start-late-stage-trial-may-state-media-2021-04-13/).

[Jingthing]

This news is going to greatly increase vaccine hesitancy among those given no choice but Sinovac.