RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – The CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd has been shown to be between 50% and 90% effective in Brazilian studies, the Sao Paulo secretary of state said, and his Brazilian manufacturer said the results were complete. of studies will be published on January 7.
The results of the studies in Brazil are known exclusively to the biomedical research center of the Butantan Institute in the state of Sao Paulo, which has an agreement with Sinovac to produce the vaccine, said Health Secretary Jean Gorinchteyn.
Early studies showed more than 50 percent effectiveness, the minimum required by Brazilian regulator Anvisa, and less than 90 percent, Gorinchteyn said in an interview with CBN radio late Thursday.
At Sinovac’s request, the Sao Paulo health department did not receive the full results of the study from the Chinese doctor, he added, adding that the company will review the data before announcing the final results.
Butantan will disclose the results of the data studies in a maximum of 15 days or until January 7, the institute said in a note on Friday.
The South American country registered 7,448,560 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 190,488 deaths caused by COVID-19, the country’s health ministry said on Friday.
On Wednesday, Butantan refused to specify the effectiveness rate in a trial of 13,000 volunteers, citing contractual obligations to Sinovac, raising questions about transparency.
The CoronaVac vaccine showed an efficiency of 91.25% in Turkey, according to an announcement on Thursday on the intermediate data from a late study in the country.
Reporting by Sabrina Valle; Edited by David Goodman and Dan Grebler