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DUBAI. — The United Arab Emirates issued the first government approval of a Chinese coronavirus vaccine yesterday, citing preliminary data showing that it was 86 percent effective, a move that could bring Chinese vaccines a step closer to widespread use.
The announcement by the Emirates’ Ministry of Health and Prevention was the first official indicator of a Chinese vaccine’s potential to help stop the pandemic.
If results from elsewhere show similar findings, the Chinese vaccines could offer a lifeline to developing countries that cannot afford vaccines from the United States that are likely to be more expensive and more difficult to transport.
The news that a Chinese vaccine is 86 percent effective — exceeding the 50 percent threshold set by many governments — comes as a boost to China’s biomedical ambitions. But it falls short of the performance reported by the American drug makers Pfizer and Moderna, which said earlier that their vaccines were more than 90 percent effective at protecting against the coronavirus.
The Emirates, which is among 10 countries where Sinopharm is testing its two vaccines, said it had reviewed an interim analysis of data from late-stage clinical trials by Sinopharm that also showed the vaccine was 100 percent effective in preventing moderate and severe cases of the disease.
There were no serious safety concerns, it said.
“The announcement is a significant vote of confidence by the UAE’s health authorities in the safety and efficacy of this vaccine,” the ministry said in a release carried by the state-run Emirates News Agency.
The government did not say whether it had conducted an independent analysis of the raw data.
The data from the Emirates bodes well for Sinopharm’s vaccines to obtain full regulatory approval in China, which Sinopharm sought even before the completion of final trials. The company is also conducting trials in Bahrain, Jordan, Peru, Argentina and elsewhere.
“I think it could hit the market in China very soon and there will be news within the next one to two weeks,” said Tao Lina, a vaccine expert in China and a former immunologist at the Shanghai Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
The vaccine could also help bring China closer to fulfilling a pledge by China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, to make the vaccine a “global public good.” — NYTimes.
Online Reporter