BEIJING (Reuters) – Two COVID-19 vaccines from Chinese companies, including Sinopharm, have triggered immunity against a highly transmissible coronavirus variant found in South Africa for the first time, but their effect appeared weaker, a study said laboratory with small samples, published on Tuesday.
Variants of the virus have raised concerns that they could weaken the effects of vaccines and treatments developed before they occurred.
Twelve serum samples each taken from recipients of two vaccines developed by a subsidiary of China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) and a Chongqing Zhifei biological products unit have maintained neutralizing activity over the South African variant, their researchers said in a statement. work.
The paper was written by researchers at the Beijing Institute of Biological Products, affiliated with Sinopharm, the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which is co-developing a candidate with the Zhifei unit and two other Chinese agencies.
However, the activity of the samples against the variant was weaker than against the original virus and another variant that is currently spreading globally, according to the paper published on the BioRxiv website before the peer review. bit.ly/3rfr2UZ
The reduction in activity “should be considered for its impact on the clinical efficacy of these vaccines,” they said.
The Sinopharm vaccine is approved in China for general public use and is used in several other countries, including the United Arab Emirates. Zhifei’s shooting is in late clinical trials in China and abroad.
Preliminary clinical trial data on vaccines from Novavax Inc and Johnson & Johnson also showed that they were significantly less effective in preventing COVID-19 in study participants in South Africa, where the powerful new variant is widespread.
Reporting by Roxanne Liu and Ryan Woo; Edited by Miyoung Kim and Simon Cameron-Moore