Coronavirus: more countries host final trials of Chinese-made vaccines

Name: China prepares for coronavirus vaccine mass production though clinical trials are not yet complete
Uploaded: 2020-09-29T09:41:00.000Z
Duration: 1 min 39 s
Description: China prepares for coronavirus vaccine mass production though clinical trials are not yet complete

People in countries from Peru to Morocco are being injected with experimental vaccines made by three Chinese companies

China offering priority access to countries is a move seen as an attempt to further Beijing’s foreign policy agenda

Reading Time:3 minutes

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Sinovac is one of three Chinese firms at the forefront of the race to develop a vaccine for Covid-19. Photo: AP

Simone McCarthy

Published: 5:41pm, 29 Sep 2020Updated: 7:20am, 30 Sep 2020

More than a dozen countries are signed on to host final phase trials of Chinese-made experimental Covid-19 vaccines, potentially putting China at the fore of national plans to immunise populations.

Across countries including Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Russia, thousands of people have been injected with experimental vaccines made by China’s three front-running vaccine makers or soon will be, according to company and government statements and media reports.

For some of these countries at least, approving final phases of clinical trials has been viewed as a means of securing early access to vaccines, because a number of wealthy nations have already bought doses pending approval and a World Health Organization mechanism that many countries are relying on can provide only enough doses for a portion of their populations over the next year.

In recent weeks, officials from Mexico, Bangladesh and Pakistan have been quoted in local media and Reuters reports citing their local trials as a means to gain future access to approved vaccines.

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China prepares for coronavirus vaccine mass production though clinical trials are not yet complete

Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech, one of the three Chinese drug makers with vaccines in the last stages of testing, said on Thursday that nations conducting its phase 3 trials would get access to doses at the same time as China, Bloomberg reported. Those trials are under way in Indonesia, Brazil and Turkey, with Bangladesh expected to begin soon.

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