China’s drug authorities have given “conditional” approval for a second COVID-19 vaccine, Sinovac’s CoronaVac jab, the pharmaceutical company said on Saturday. A conditional approval helps speed-up emergency supply of drugs to market in cases where clinical trials are yet to meet normal standards but indicate therapies will work. The approval comes after multiple domestic and overseas trials of the vaccine in countries including Brazil and Turkey, although “efficacy and safety results need to be further confirmed”, Sinovac said in a statement. Fellow Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm received a similar conditional green light in December to put its vaccine on the market. Sinovac said trials in Brazil had shown around 50% efficacy in preventing infection and 80% efficacy in preventing cases requiring medical intervention.

Source: The Hindu February 06, 2021 16:30 UTC