China clears Sinovac coronavirus vaccine for children aged 3 and over

China has authorized the emergency use of CoronaVac, the coronavirus vaccine manufactured by the company Sinovac, for children aged 3 and over, local press reported on Saturday.

The president of Sinovac, Yin Weidong, told local media on Friday evening that the relevant authorities had approved the emergency use of the vaccine in China among minors but that “It has not yet been decided when it will be used and from what age”.

Sinovac has completed phases I and II of clinical research with hundreds of volunteers aged 3 to 17, for whom “the vaccine is as safe and effective as it is for adults,” Yin told state broadcaster CCTV .

On June 1, the World Health Organization (WHO) approved emergency use of the Sinovac vaccine, the second vaccine made in China to get the green light. after the one developed by Sinopharm. Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccine “Meets international standards for safety, efficiency and manufacturing”The WHO said in a statement at the time, adding that its technical advisers had visited the laboratory facilities in Beijing before issuing its decision.

Sinopharm and Sinovac are the first vaccines against the COVID-19 disease to which the WHO gives the green light without having previously had a similar decision from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) or the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Studies indicate that the Sinovac vaccine has a only 51% effective in reducing symptomatic cases of COVID-19, although the percentage rises to 100% for severe cases and those requiring hospitalization.

Emergency use approval gives these vaccines the opportunity to enter the program COVAX, created by WHO in cooperation with other agencies to distribute low-cost and equitable doses of vaccines around the world.

Like his pair of Sinopharm, Sinovac’s vaccine uses the entire SARS-CoV2 virus, while other WHO-approved vaccines use only one gene. CoronaVac, as the vaccine is called commercially, it uses the virus itself inactivated (dead) Thanks to a chemical process with beta-propiolactone in which the virus is made to develop in vero cells, in a massive way, in the laboratory. In this process, it is inactivated to ensure that it is unable to replicate.

According to the Chinese laboratory, this type of vero cell comes from a line of green monkey kidney cells used since 1962, both for the production of vaccines against viral diseases and for studies of molecular biology. To strengthen immunity, the vaccine includes an adjuvant substance, which in this case is aluminum hydroxide, as well as other vaccines such as diphtheria, polio, hepatitis A or rabies.

The Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical studies of Sinovac vaccine have been published in The Lancet in November and showed good results both in terms of immunogenicity and safety, with mild side effects similar to those associated with other approved vaccines. The Chinese vaccine took longer to be approved, compared to those in the United States or Russia, for example, since the security scans had to be redoubled because it was the full virus.

(With information from EFE)

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