Chairman Liu Jingzhen attended the press conference of Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council held on October 20 and introduced the latest progress of COVID-19 vaccine.
According to Chairman Liu, the two inactivated COVID-19 vaccines developed by Sinopharm CNBG’s two institutes, Beijing Institute of Biological Products (BIBP) and Wuhan Institute of Biological Products (WIBP ), are in Phase III clinical trial in 10 countries including the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Peru and Argentina. So far, the trials are widely supported and accepted by the international community, having enrolled more than 50,000 volunteers of 125 nationalities. A number of countries have expressed their request for Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccines.
The inactivated COVID-19 vaccines of WIBP and BIBP were approved for Phase I/II clinical trial on April 12 and April 27 respectively. The unblinded data of the over-4000-volunteer trials showed that the vaccines induced high-titer antibody. After two doses of vaccination on day 0 and 28, the antibody conversion rate reached 100%.
Sinopharm CNBG is currently at the final stage of the COVID-19 R&D race. The manufacturer will apply for registration approval once the data of Phase III clinical trial is ready. In fact, the two candidate vaccines have already been approved for emergency use in China. As a preparation for massive production, Sinopharm CNBG has built two production plants that meet biosafety level III protection requirements with a total annual manufacturing capacity of over 1 billion doses.
When asked about the adverse effect of the COVID-19 vaccine, Chairman Liu mentioned that there has been no reported serious adverse event (SAE) among the Phase I/II and Phase III clinical trial participants so far, indicating the safety of the vaccines. Chairman Liu added that Sinopharm will keep a close eye on SAE.