The decision by a
Aside from efficacy numbers, the Chinese manufacturer has released very little public data about its two vaccines — one developed by its
The
“This afternoon,
.The Sinopharm vaccine will join ones made by Pfizer-BioNTech,
The announcement raised the prospect that the Chinese vaccine, which has already been exported by millions of doses in some countries, could join the U.N.’s arsenal against COVID-19 at a time when supplies of other Western-made or -developed vaccines have been lacking.
“The addition of (the Sinopharm) vaccine has the potential to rapidly accelerate COVID-19 vaccine access for countries seeking to protect health workers and populations at risk,” said Dr.
Arnaud Didierlaurent, a professor at the University of Geneva’s medical school
“In fact, the work does not stop after the listing,” he said.
Medical regulators in the
The
Previously, a separate group advising
Sinopharm hasn’t published its late-stage test results in scientific journals, so the
″(We) came to the conclusion that there is enough evidence of safety and the capacity of the vaccine to prevent severe disease or symptomatic and hospitalized cases up to 79%,” said Dr.
“There is no reason to think that the vaccine would behave differently in this older age group,” he added.
Gavi, the
“This means the world has yet another safe and effective tool in the fight against this pandemic,” the alliance said. The public-private partnership said it was in discussions with several manufacturers, including Sinopharm, “to expand and diversify the portfolio further and secure access to additional doses” for countries in the COVAX program.
COVAX aims to send vaccines for free to 92 lower-income countries and to help another 99 countries and territories procure them. It was not immediately clear when the Chinese vaccine might be made available to the COVAX portfolio
The program, which has already distributed over 54 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines but faces limited supplies from Western countries and
Suerie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Program at Geneva’s
“The decision is also sure to be scrutinized all around for any whiff of political bias, and no doubt the committee members were very well aware of this,” she said, noting that the decision could also be a boon for developing countries in need of coronavirus vaccines.
“If there is a greenlight, these vaccines could boost the thin stream of supplies that has been channeled through COVAX to date,” she said, as the program has been hit hard by export bans limiting vaccine supply from
Moon also said if Chinese suppliers start channeling large volumes, “this would signal a step-change in their participation in global vaccine markets.” Before the pandemic,
WHO’s decision on Sinopharm, months in the making, was particularly complex because the vaccine has not faced the high-level scrutiny of a rigorous medicines regulator like those in
The
Many officials in countries without such regulatory structures rely on WHO’s emergency use listings to authorize vaccine rollouts for their populations.
Hundreds of millions of Chinese vaccines have already been delivered to dozens of countries around the world through bilateral deals as many scrambled to secure supplies after rich countries had reserved the vast majority of supplies from Western pharmaceutical makers.
While
The Chinese vaccines are “inactivated” vaccines, made with killed coronavirus. Most other COVID-19 vaccines being used around the world, particularly in the West, are made with newer technologies that instead target the “spike” protein that coats the surface of the coronavirus.
Sinopharm said last month that over 100 million doses of its two vaccines have been used across the world.
Sinovac, by comparison, has shared relatively more data. Last month, a study published by a team of scientists in
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