BEIJING (Reuters) – Several efficacy results for a Chinese COVID-19 vaccine released separately in China and the United Arab Emirates are both real and valid, an executive at China National Biotec Group (CNBG) told state media.
China on Thursday approved its first COVID-19 vaccine for general public use, an injection developed by a partner of the state-backed Sinopharm, after the developer said the vaccine showed an efficacy of 79.34% based on an interim analysis of late stage clinical studies.
That rate is lower than the 86% rate for the same vaccine reported by the United Arab Emirates on Dec. 9.
Countries have certain differences in their standards and procedures when diagnosing patients, and the final results of COVID-19 case identification were different, Yang Xiaoming, CNBG chairman of the Sinopharm unit, told Global Times, a tabloid published by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper. of the ruling Communist Party of China.
“Therefore, there were discrepancies between the comprehensive multi-country data we reviewed and the data on protection rates previously evaluated by the UAE and Bahrain,” Global Times quoted Yang in a report published Thursday.
“But these two results are both real and valid,” said Yang, without providing further details for the data.
CNBG did not participate in the analysis or review of clinical trial data released by regulators in countries where the vaccine was tested, Yang said.
The vaccine, developed by CNBG’s Beijing Biological Products Institute unit, along with another candidate from a Wuhan-based unit of CNBG, is being tested in Phase III clinical trials outside of China.
Trials for CNBG’s candidates have recruited more than 60,000 participants between the ages of 18 and 60, Yang said.
Reporting by Roxanne Liu and Ryan Woo; Editing by Kim Coghill