Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine is 78% effective in advanced stage trials in Brazil

The Chinese Sinovac vaccine has been shown to be 78% effective against Covid-19 in Brazilian late stage trials and offers full protection against severe cases of the disease, raising hopes that it can be used to immunize a large number of people. part of the developing world.

Brazil’s Butantan Institute, the São Paulo-based research center that tested CoronaVac in phase 3 trials, said Thursday that none of the volunteers who took the vaccine developed serious cases of Covid-19. More than 12,000 health workers have participated in phase 3 trials in Brazil, the first country to have tested for the Sinovac vaccine.

“This is an excellent result,” said Luiz Carlos Dias, a member of a Covid-19 working group of researchers from the University of Campinas in the state of São Paulo. “If it can prevent serious cases, hospitalizations, deaths, it will help us get out of this pandemic.”

CoronaVac’s vaccine is less effective than those developed by Moderna Inc. and jointly by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE which showed efficacy rates of 94.5% and 95% in tests, respectively. But CoronaVac can be stored in a standard refrigerator between around 36 and 46 degrees Fahrenheit, making it easier and cheaper to transport and store in less developed countries, infectious disease specialists have said.

Prashant Yadav, a global health specialist at the Washington-based think tank Center for Global Development, said 78% is high enough that many developing countries consider using the vaccine and potentially good enough that the World Health Organization is considering incorporating CoronaVac into its global distribution system.