Sinopharm awaits new results to determine if its COVID-19 vaccine needs a third booster dose

Chinese National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) must assess the results of phase III clinical trials abroad to decide if your two-dose COVID-19 vaccine should be followed by a third booster dosea business executive said on Sunday.

Regulators and vaccine developers are investigating whether booster doses are needed as emerging variants of the new coronavirus could weaken the protection of modified vaccines against older strains.

“Preliminary results to date have shown that The booster vaccine can effectively increase the titer of neutralizing antibodies and the persistence of antibodies, and also effectively improve the vaccine’s ability to resist mutations.Zhang Yuntao, vice president of China National Biotec Group (CNBG), a subsidiary of Sinopharm, said Sunday.

“Do you need a reminder? When will it be administered? The answer should be based on the results of future phase III clinical studies.Zhang said at a press conference.

The Sinopharm vaccine has an efficacy rate of 79%. This, according to experts, is more than enough. However, data on the Chinese immunizer has not been made public.

A few weeks ago, scientific authorities in the United Arab Emirates discovered a worrying problem in some people who received the vaccine against the Chinese coronavirus: after being subjected to antibody tests, a group did not register a response sufficient immunity after receiving both doses of Sinopharm Immunizer. For this reason, local authorities decided to give them a third dose.

In the UAE, although it started vaccinating at almost the same rate as the UK and between one and two weeks earlier than the other two countries, not only did it take longer to start reducing new cases, but this decrease is going considerably slower.

In Latin America, the formula is applied in Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela and Peru, where it played in a scandal that jeopardizes the rigor of the scientific study, about to be published. In addition, other countries in the region are negotiating the purchase of millions of doses.

Antibodies activated by two products of Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccine have a “fairly good” neutralizing effect on variants found in Britain and South Africa, as well as a few others, Zhang said at a conference. press, citing results of laboratory tests with blood. samples taken from participants in clinical trials.

Laboratory tests were underway for the variants found in Brazil and Zimbabwe.Zhang said.

the effect of antibodies induced by Sinovac Biotech vaccine decreased compared to a variant identified in South Africa, while the effect against a variant found in Britain remained similar to that of the older variant from Wuhansaid Gao Qiang, general manager of the Sinovac Sinovac Life Sciences unit. Sinovac imports the Brazilian variant for vaccine research and development, and work on the South African variant has already started, Gao said.

The correlation between antibody levels and vaccine effectiveness was not immediately clear, a Sinovac spokesperson said.

Sinovac was also testing a third booster injection in a China-based clinical trial, with participants receiving a third dose about eight months after receiving the second, the company said on Tuesday.

The South African variant could pose a greater threat than others based on the antibody responses triggered by the vaccine from CanSino Biologics Inc (CanSinoBIO), a company executive said earlier this month.

Antibodies activated by a dose of CanSinoBIO vaccine have shown an approximately four-fold decrease in their ability to block the 501Y.V2 variant, said company chief scientist Zhu Tao.

The weakening effect of the other variants fell into a less severe range, he added.

(With information from Reuters)

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