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Beijing – Chinese health authorities announced on Thursday that they had conditionally approved a coronavirus vaccine developed by the Sinopharm state laboratory.
It is the first vaccine approved for general use in China. The permit was issued when the country conducted a vaccination campaign of 50 million people ahead of the important Lunar New Year celebration in February.
Chen Shifei, deputy commissioner of the China National Medical Products Administration, told a press conference on Thursday that the decision had been made the day before.
The vaccine was developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products, a subsidiary of the Sinopharm state conglomerate. The company announced on Wednesday that according to preliminary information from the latest test phase, the vaccine is 79.3% effective.
Final evidence of its effectiveness is dependent on the publication of more data.
Sinopharm is one of at least five Chinese developers competing globally to make vaccines against the disease that killed more than 1.8 million people worldwide.
Conditional consent means that research continues and authorities can request more information about the safety and effectiveness of certain populations with different health profiles, said Tao Lina, a former government immunologist.
The term generally means that a drug or product in question may be limited to certain age groups, he noted.
Authorities declined to name a particular price. “Of course it will be the limit of what anyone can afford,” said Zheng Zhongwei, an official with the National Health Commission.
The Beijing Institute’s vaccine is already widely produced, although authorities have not responded to questions about its current production capacity.
“Production capacity is a dynamic and continuous process,” said Mao Junfeng, deputy director of the Department of Consumer Products Industry at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.