Sinovac Biotech Ltd chief executive said on Sunday that about 90% of Sinovac Biotech Ltd employees and their families have taken an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by the Chinese firm under the country’s emergency use program.
The emergency program launched by China in July is actively using the experimental vaccine expecting to protect their essential workers against the Coronavirus infection even while trials are underway. Only a few details have been released about the program as of now and are intended for specific groups, including medical staffers and those who work at food markets and in the transportation and service sectors.
“As a vaccine developer and manufacturer, a new outbreak could directly impact our vaccine production,” said CEO Yin Weidongsaid to Reuters on the sidelines of an international trade fair in Beijing, explaining why his company was included in the emergency program. He also said that Sinovac has offered its vaccine CoronaVac which is in its Phase 3 clinical trials to approximately 2,000 to 3,000 employees and their families on a voluntary basis and has been included in the emergency scheme.
“Data gathered from the program could offer evidence of the vaccine’s safety, but such data, which is not part of the registered clinical trial protocols, will not be used as main materials that regulators review in judging whether to approve the vaccine for commercial use,” said Yin. and added that those who chose to be inoculated, including his wife and parents, had been informed of the potential side effects prior to taking the shot, and that its vaccine completing only early and mid-stage trials.
Fatigue, fever and pain, with mostly mild symptoms, are some of the side-effects of CoronaVac according to results of a mid-stage trial sponsored by Sinovac, involving 600 participants and published last month ahead of peer review.
No vaccine has passed final till date against the virus, that has led to over 870,000 deaths globally.
