Sinovac: COVID-19 vaccine 'successful' in mid-stage trials

• Sinovac Biotech's (NASDAQ:SVA) experimental COVID-19 vaccine, CoronaVac triggered a quick immune response but low levels of antibodies when compared to the people who had recovered from the disease, source Reuters.
• While the early to mid-stage trials were not designed to assess the efficacy of CoronaVac, researchers said it could provide sufficient protection, based on their experience with other vaccines and data from preclinical studies with macaques.
• The announcement comes after European and U.S. vaccines reported successful data from large late-stage trials. Three vaccines, developed in the U.S., Germany and Russia, have all released data suggesting efficiency of more than 90%.
• Like the rest of the world, China is racing to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. CoronaVac and four other experimental vaccines have entered the third and final stage of clinical trials.
• Our findings show that CoronaVac is capable of inducing a quick antibody response within four weeks of immunisation by giving two doses of the vaccine at a 14-day interval,” Zhu Fengcai, one of the authors of the paper, said.
• "We believe that this makes the vaccine suitable for emergency use during the pandemic,” Zhu said in a statement published alongside the paper.
• The Sinovac findings, published in medical journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases, came from results in Phase I and Phase II clinical trials in China involving more than 700 participants.
• Sinovac is currently running three Phase III trials in Indonesia, Brazil and Turkey.
• CoronaVac is one of three COVID-19 vaccines China has been using to inoculate hundreds of thousands of people under an emergency use program.
• The two other vaccines in the program, both developed by institutes linked to Sinopharm, and another vaccine from CanSino Biologics, were also shown to be safe and triggered immune responses in early and mid-stage trials, according to peer-reviewed papers.
• Gang Zeng, a Sinovac researcher involved in the CoronaVac study, said the vaccine could be an attractive option because it can be stored at normal fridge temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius (36°-46°F) and may remain stable for up to three years.
• Trials of the Sinovac Biotech vaccine in Brazil were briefly halted last week but resumed after the reported death of a volunteer was found to have no links to the vaccine.
• CoronaVac is also being considered by Brazil and Indonesia for inoculations in the coming months.
• Over the past few days, there has been a string of promising vaccine news from around the world.
• Researchers behind all of the three vaccines developed by a German-U.S. Pfizer and BioNtech, U.S. company Moderna and a Russian Covid vaccine have released data from more advanced testing stages than the Chinese vaccine. However, Sinovac is conducting these same late-stage trials as well.
• Approval and mass production would be the next hurdles and which of those vaccines will be first rolled out still remains to be seen.
• https://seekingalpha.com/news/3637388-sinovacs-covidminus-19-vaccine-successful-in-mid-stage-trials