Sinovac assures safety of its COVID vaccine

BY JEFFREY DAMICOG

Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech on Monday assured the public that its own CoronaVac vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is safe, effective and will be reasonably priced.

“Our safety data collecting is showing there is no serious adverse reactions related to the vaccine,” said Sinovac Biotech general manager Helen Yang in an interview over CNN Philippines.

Also, Yang said testing conducted in several countries showed that the vaccine has met the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Despite this, Yang assured that “in terms of pricing, definitely we are not on the highest expensive ones because I think it is the mission of Sinovac to provide at an affordable price.”

“In the Philippines, we are committed to provide a favorable price,” said Yang who, however, declined to provide pricing for the vaccine.

In the meantime, Yang said Sinovac and the Philippine government has already reached a term sheet in supplying 25 million doses of the vaccine with 50,000 being eyed to be delivered in February.

“Usually a term sheet is non-binding understanding between buyers and sellers on some of the terms they most cared about,” she explained Yang expressed hope that the firm and the Philippines will eventually reach a definitive and binding agreement.

Sinovac’s general manager boasted the vaccine uses inactivated technology which has been utilized for decades.

“So the safety of the trial is very good not only for the COVID vaccine but also of our other vaccines using the same technology,” she pointed out.

The Sinovac official said CoronaVac underwent Phase clinical trials in Brazil, Turkey and Indonesia.

“Around 20 percent of people reported pain at injection side and fever,” she cited the data collected.

Meanwhile, Yang said that the firm has already rolled out around eight million doses already for China, Turkey, and Indonesia.

Just last Sunday night, Jan. 18, she said Brazil has approved the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the use of the vaccine.

“Even in this very challenging environment the results still meet the WHO standards. I think this is a fantastic result,” Yang stated.

She said Turkey has already revealed the preliminary results of the trials which showed that there is a vaccine protective rate of 91.25 percent.

Though Brazil revealed that there is an overall 50 percent efficacy rate, Yang pointed out the results of the trials in Brazil showed that there is a 100 percent protection for severe and hospitalized cases and 78 percent for those with mild cases but with medical assistance.