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TAIPEI – Pressure is mounting on Chinese drugmakers to show clinical evidence that their main Covid-19 vaccines are working, after the first data on three injections developed in the West showed promising efficacy against the disease.
Earlier this week, AstraZeneca PLC and the University of Oxford said their vaccine candidate was between 62% and 90% effective, joining two other Western rivals to the vaccine in providing data. The results could allow the United States and other countries to grant regulatory approval and prepare distribution plans for widespread vaccination.
Chinese vaccine makers launched advanced stage clinical trials in July, around the same time as Western vaccine developers Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. One of the reasons China has to wait longer to obtain the results, say public health experts, is that countries where Chinese researchers have looked for volunteers – in places like the United Arab Emirates and Brazil – have not seen Covid-19 spread as quickly as ‘in the United States, which is the main testing ground for major Western vaccine makers.
Trials need to accumulate a certain number of cases of infection before researchers can justify revealing which participants received vaccines compared to placebo to calculate effectiveness rates.
“China has said it will make its vaccine a global public good, but we need details and accountability,” says Peter Maybarduk, director of the nonprofit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen in Washington, DC
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