Sinovac Biotech announced preliminary study results on Saturday showing its experimental Covid-19 vaccine generated immune responses in patients and was safe — early data that suggest it might protect people against infections with the novel coronavirus.
The Beijing-based drug maker’s vaccine, called CoronaVac, induced neutralizing antibodies in “above 90%” of people who were tested 14 days after receiving two injections, two weeks apart. There were no severe side effects reported, the company said in a statement.
The preliminary results were from a 600-patient, placebo-controlled Phase 2 study. Sinovac is also conducting a 143-patient, placebo-controlled Phase 1 study.
There are currently more than two dozen research efforts underway to develop protective vaccines against the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19. In May, Moderna, a Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech firm, announced early and encouraging immune-response results for its experimental Covid-19 vaccine — although vaccine experts criticized the company for not disclosing enough detailed data.
In similar ways, Sinovac’s statement Saturday was short on details about the extent of CoronaVac’s efficacy and safety. The company said it expects to submit a report on the Phase 2 study results in the “near future,” at the same time as it submits a design protocol for a Phase 3 clinical trial to China’s version of the Food and Drug Administration.
Earlier this week, Sinovac also announced a collaboration with a Brazilian drug maker to start a Phase 3 clinical study there.
“Our phase 1/2 study shows CoronaVac is safe and can induce immune response,” said Sinovac CEO Weidong Yin, in a statement. Sinovac is building a manufacturing facility intended to “maximize the number of doses available to protect people from COVID-19,” he added.
Sinovc’s CoronaVac vaccine candidate uses an inactivated version of the novel coronavirus. The company used the same technology to craft approved vaccines for hepatitis A and B; swine flu; avian flu; and the virus that causes hand, foot, and mouth disease.
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What happened to my sinovac stock sva?
So Naveed, you think Bill Gates has a basement full of the cure that he is going to sell on eBay from a Chinese address at an outrageous profit. I am finding that American people are generally uninformed and always looking for a conspiracy theory to make them feel warm and fuzzy. I’ll bet you are voting for Trump.
Hey! Don’t lump all Americans in with conspiracy theorists. But your last sentence rang true.
Looks like Sinovac is on the right track, having proven its platform also works for other vaccines. They can now add Beijing to their R&D test areas (what on earth is wrong with the food markets in China ??). Once the Sinovac vaccine is ready, China will get it to its own population first – and charge the US a high price in retaliation for its anti-China accusations (while the overhyped Moderna vaccine does not cut it). What goes around comes around …..
Naveed, are you Palestinian? Is that why you hate Israel so much? Covid19 started in and grew from China. In all the news over the past six months or so no one has made a direct link between Israel and Coronavirus. Even more damaging to your credibility is that China admitted it started in Wuhan. The last thing we need in these times is more hatred and bias.
Please be fast in trials and make it available for used because a lot of lives are vanishing
Engineered Virus
Fake Vaccines.
Please give me posted about your researches for covid19 vaccinations
As far as I am concerned, I will chose a vaccine made of inactivated/attenuated/defective whole virus over a DNA/RNA/recombinant S protein one, any day
Why? If both give an adequate immune response why is one better than the other?
It is fake propaganda from W H O and Israel, vaccine and treatment already developed because this virus made in lab, they made viruses and sale its treatment.
Go away Israel do not want your vaccine.
@McCormick
of course, if both are good enough the distinctions becomes academic. But, a priori that could not be the case. The whole coronavirus has 29 proteins plus nucleic acids, and all of them in one way or another can be used by our immune system to build a thorough effective immune response that includes both the humoral and cell-mediated component. On the other hand, the vaccines based on just the Spike protein of the coronavirus are likely to generate an immune response strongly skewed toward just the humoral component. That is, having antibodies against just that viral protein and little more. A mutation in that protein and/or an incomplete inactivation of the virus by those antibodies, allowing the virus to sneak in our cells anyway, would leave our body completely unaware of the infection as if we were never vaccinated. Therefore, the fundamental question is: will DNA/RNA/recombinant vaccines be just good enough?
Consider also that whole virus vaccines have been used successfully since ever, while not a single Moderna’s RNA vaccine, for instance, has been FDA approved so far.