Chinese firm Sinovac 99% sure COVID-19 vaccine will work

Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech has said that it is 99% sure that their COVID-19 vaccine will work.

The company reached stage 2 of the coronavirus vaccine trial with more than 1000 volunteers participating. The company is in preliminary talks to hold stage 3 trials - the final part of the process in the UK.

As per a Sky News report, Luo Baishan, a researcher at Sinovac, when asked whether he thought the vaccine would be successful.

"Yes, yes. It must be successful… 99% [sure]," he replied.

The company published results of the vaccine named CoronaVac in the academic journal Science last month that protected monkeys from infection by the coronavirus.

Due to low number of cases in China, the company is now looking for a different place for stage 3 trials.

The report quoted Helen Yang, senior director of investor relations, as saying: "We are speaking to several European countries and I think did discuss with the UK as well. Currently it's a very preliminary stage for the discussion."

The company confirmed that construction of a production plant near Beijing was concurrently under way with an aim of being able to produce 100 million doses.

"It is our recommendation that it is not the whole population that gets the vaccine," Ms Yang said as per the report .

"We are firstly targeting high-risk groups, for example, health workers or senior citizens, who may have a higher level of fatality rate. I think that will be the starting point. To be frank, the vaccine needs to be produced lot by lot," she further said.

The stage 2 trials have months to run before Stage 3 can begin, Ms Yang pointed out that the vaccine won't be here soon. _Agencies


Dhaka/AKA