Posted on: Wed 09-12-2020

Early data from a late-stage trial indicates that 97 per cent of those injected with a COVID-19 vaccine made by China’s Sinovac Biotech developed antibodies, the Indonesian company set to produce the shot said on Tuesday. A spokesperson for Indonesian vaccine maker Bio Farma corrected his earlier statement, which claimed that preliminary data indicated that the vaccine’s “efficacy is up to 97 per cent.” Company spokesperson Iwan Setiawan said the 97 per cent figure referred to seroconversion, or the development of an antibody as a result of the vaccine.  

“As for efficacy, we’ll have to wait until January at the end of the third-phase trial to get full data,” “We will find out whether the presence of antibodies provides protection against COVID-19 in January,” he added.

Sinovac has conducted the third-phase trial in Indonesia since August, involving 1,600 volunteers. According to Sinovac’s spokesperson in Beijing, the company has not yet obtained efficacy data on the vaccine.  

It is expected that trials in Brazil will generate such data, the Jiemian website reported. Bio Farma is expected to start producing the shots early next year, pending the results of phase-3 clinical trials. Indonesia on Sunday already took delivery of 1.2 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine from China, which it wants to authorize for emergency use, depending on the results.  

Source: Vanguard

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