China’s Sinovac defends Brazil results but regulators to look hard at data
- Chinese firm seeks to clarify Brazilian partner’s announcement that CoronaVac is 50 per cent effective
- Company will double production capacity in February to meet overseas and domestic demand, chairman says
The low efficacy rate for Sinovac Biotech’s CoronaVac vaccine was announced on Tuesday by the Butantan Institute in Brazil, raising questions over the effectiveness of the shots.
But in Beijing on Wednesday, Sinovac Biotech chairman Yin Weidong insisted that the data showed CoronaVac was effective and safe.
“This [Brazilian] data shows that the vaccines have good efficacy and safety in all the phase 3 clinical trials,” Yin said. “We have accelerated the ramping up of production capacity.”
02:04
Indonesia says CoronaVac is 65.3% effective as Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccine makes inroads in Asia
It was the first public response from the company since the institute announced the 50.38 per cent efficacy rate – barely passing the threshold set by most health regulators and well below the 70 per cent recommended by the Chinese government and the World Health Organization.
After the disclosure, various regulators said they would assess the data carefully to decide whether to go ahead with buying or distributing the vaccine.