UAE first government to approve a Chinese coronavirus vaccine
By Sui Lee Wee
DUBAI – The United Arab Emirates (UAE) issued the first government approval of a Chinese coronavirus vaccine Wednesday (9), citing preliminary data showing that it was 86% effective, a move that could bring Chinese vaccines a step closer to widespread use.
The announcement by the UAE’s Ministry of Health and Prevention was the first official indicator of a Chinese vaccine’s potential to help stop the pandemic. If results from elsewhere show similar findings, the Chinese vaccines could offer a lifeline to developing countries that cannot afford vaccines from the United States, which are likely to be more expensive and more difficult to transport.
But Chinese officials and Sinopharm, the State-owned maker of the vaccine, were silent Wednesday on the Emirati disclosures. And scientists noted that the announcement was lacking in data and other critical details.
The news that a Chinese vaccine is 86% effective — exceeding the 50% threshold set by many governments — comes as a boost to China’s biomedical ambitions. But it falls short of the performance reported by US drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna, which said earlier that their vaccines were more than 90% effective at protecting against the coronavirus.
The UAE, which is among 10 countries where Sinopharm is testing its two vaccines, said it had reviewed an interim analysis of data from late-stage clinical trials by Sinopharm that also showed the vaccine was 100% effective in preventing moderate and severe cases of the disease. There were no serious safety concerns, it said.
“The announcement is a significant vote of confidence by the UAE’s health authorities in the safety and efficacy of this vaccine,” the ministry said in a release carried by the state-run Emirates News Agency.
The government did not say whether it had conducted an independent analysis of the raw data.
The data from the UAE bodes well for Sinopharm’s vaccines to obtain full regulatory approval in China, which Sinopharm sought even before the completion of final trials. The company is also conducting trials in Bahrain, Jordan, Peru, Argentina and elsewhere.
“I think it could hit the market in China very soon, and there will be news within the next one to two weeks,” said Tao Lina, a vaccine expert in China and a former immunologist at the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The news release from the Emirati government provided few other key details, such as the number of COVID-19 cases that were analyzed or the ages of the volunteers, making it unclear to scientists how Sinopharm came to its conclusions.
“The devil is in the details,” said Beate Kampmann, director of the Vaccine Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “It’s very difficult to judge this without seeing the number of cases. The main thing is, the trial results need to be made public.”
Jin Dongyan, a virus expert at the University of Hong Kong, called the information in the UAE’s disclosure “mediocre,” saying more transparency from the vaccine maker was needed.
The need for clarity on the safety and efficacy of China’s vaccines has taken on more urgency after Sinopharm revealed it had already vaccinated roughly one million people even before the completion of clinical trials. The campaign has alarmed overseas scientists who say it exposes people to undue risks.
Chinese officials have repeatedly assured the public that the country’s coronavirus vaccines are safe, while providing few details.
-New York Times