China conditionally authorizes its first COVID-19 vaccine

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Beijing – Chinese health authorities announced on Thursday that they have conditionally approved a coronavirus vaccine developed by the Sinopharm state laboratory.

It is the first vaccine approved for general use in China. The permit was issued because the country carried out a vaccination campaign of 50 million people before the important celebration of the Lunar New Year in February.

Chen Shifei, deputy commissioner of China’s National Medical Administration, told a news conference on Thursday that the decision was made the day before.

The vaccine was developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products, a subsidiary of the state-owned Sinopharm conglomerate. The company announced on Wednesday that, according to preliminary information from the last testing stage, the vaccine is 79.3% effective.

The definitive proof of its effectiveness will depend on the publication of several data.

Sinopharm is one of at least five Chinese developers competing globally to create vaccines against the disease that has killed more than 1.8 million people worldwide.

Conditional authorization means that investigations continue and that authorities can request more information about the safety and efficacy of certain populations with different health profiles, said Tao Lina, a former government immunologist.

The term generally means that a drug or product in question could be limited to certain age groups, he noted.

The authorities refused to mention a certain price. “Of course, it will be at the limit of what a person can pay,” said Zheng Zhongwei, an official of the National Health Commission.

The Beijing Institute’s vaccine is already being widely manufactured, although authorities have not answered questions about current production capacity.

“Production capacity is a dynamic and continuous process,” said Mao Junfeng, deputy director of the Consumer Products Industry Department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

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