90% of people inoculated with vaccine by Sinovac shows favourable result
Beijing | Sinovac Biotech Limited stated that it's coronavirus shot is safe and capable of drawing out an immune response from human trials, suggesting the potential of the vaccine in defending against infection of coronavirus. The Beijing based company's vaccine, called - Coronavac, hasn't caused any severe side effect and more than 90 percent of people administered with the shot on a 14-day interval have induced neutralising antibodies two weeks after inoculation.
Preliminary findings from Phase I and Phase II trials in China show that 743 healthy people aged between 18-59 either recieved shots on two schedules or a placebo. Of that total, 143 volunteers are participating in Phase I, testing the safety of the immunization,which is a dead strain of the virus. The remaining adults are in Phase II, seeing if antibodies would be triggered after being given two shots in 14 days. More data are expected from another group in the trial that recieved shots on a 28 day interval to assess if that is more effective, the company stated. The trial was conducted at the Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention in eastern China and was randomized, double blind and placebo-controlled.
"The neutralizing antibody seroconversion rate is above 90%, which concludes the vaccine candidate can induce a positive immune response", the company issued a statement about the results of the trial.
Sinovac has also partenered with Instituto Butantan in Brazil, where the novel coronavirus has caused the second largest outbreak that has so far infected more that 7.7 million people, to conduct Phase III in which the vaccine candidate is tested on a large group usually above the age of 18.
"Our Phase I/II study shows CoronaVac is safe and can induce an immune response. We have started to invest in building a manufacturing facility so that we can maximize the number of doses available to protect people from Covid-19. Like with our other vaccines, we are committed to developing CoronaVac for global use as part of our mission of supplying vaccines to eliminate human disease", underlined Weidong Yin, Chairman,President and CEO of Sinovac.