Coronavirus Vaccines

China approves first vaccine for general public use

Move underscores its ambition to be major player in supplying vaccinations to world

The Covid-19 vaccine is developed by state-owned China National Biotec Group, a unit of Sinopharm. Even as China aims to supply vaccinations to its own people and countries around the world, it faces challenges in winning over the trust of millions o
The Covid-19 vaccine is developed by state-owned China National Biotec Group, a unit of Sinopharm. Even as China aims to supply vaccinations to its own people and countries around the world, it faces challenges in winning over the trust of millions of people who may have to rely on its vaccines. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

BEIJING • China's drug regulator has approved the country's first coronavirus vaccine for general public use, a sign of confidence in the experimental shots the nation plans to roll out within and beyond its borders.

China's National Medical Products Administration gave the authorisation to a Covid-19 vaccine developed by state-owned China National Biotec Group (CNBG), a unit of Sinopharm, officials told reporters in Beijing yesterday.

With the approval, the vaccine - which has been authorised for emergency use in China since mid-last year along with other front-runner shots - will be made commercially available, meaning it can be administered to the general population.

Regulators from the United States to Singapore have approved shots over the past month, among them vaccines developed by Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, but those have been largely for emergency use, a status China granted to its developers months ago.

China will target members of the population at higher risk in its inoculations, among them the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions, and then roll vaccines out to the general public, Mr Zeng Yixin, Vice-Minister of the country's National Health Commission, said at the briefing.

The country has already administered more than 4.5 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, with three million alone given since mid-December, Mr Zeng said. It is said to be aiming to inoculate 50 million people against the virus by early February, ahead of the annual Chinese New Year holiday.

The go-ahead for broader use underscores China's determination to be a major player in supplying vaccinations to its own people and countries around the world. Yet, the nation faces challenges in winning over the trust of millions of people who may have to rely on its vaccines.

Chinese developers have been slow compared with their Western peers in releasing clinical trial data, raising questions over transparency, efficacy and safety as the world puts a laser focus on which vaccines will be most successful in fighting the pandemic.

CNBG said on Wednesday that its shot is effective in preventing Covid-19 in 79.3 per cent of people, less than the 86 per cent reported earlier from its trials in the United Arab Emirates.

CNBG will publish detailed data about its shots in recognised international medical journals, its president Wu Yonglin said yesterday.

China now has 14 vaccines, including Sinovac's CoronaVac and CanSino Biologics' Convidecia, in clinical trials. Five of them are in last-stage phase 3 trials.

  • How the various vaccines work

  • SINOPHARM AND SINOVAC

    The vaccines being developed by China use an inactivated version of the coronavirus to stimulate an immune response.

    The viral particles - disabled through radiation, chemicals or heat - expose the body's immune system to the virus and prompt the production of antibodies against it, but they cannot cause serious disease because they do not try to enter cells and replicate.

    This is a long tried and trusted approach widely used in other vaccines against various illnesses.

    PFIZER-BIONTECH AND MODERNA

    These two vaccines use messenger RNA, or mRNA, technology.

    Instead of introducing the actual virus into the body, they inject only critical fragments of the coronavirus' genetic code, which contain instructions for cells to make proteins that mimic part of the virus. The immune system is then trained to attack these proteins by producing antibodies.

    Having had a preview of what the real virus looks like, the body is well equipped to neutralise the real virus if the person is infected.

    ASTRAZENECA-OXFORD AND SPUTNIK V

    Both vaccines use harmless, weakened adenoviruses (common cold viruses) as vehicles, or vectors, to carry genetic instructions into the body to prompt cells to produce antibodies.

    As such vaccines mimic natural viral infection, they tend to trigger strong immune responses.

    The AstraZeneca vaccine uses an adenovirus found only in monkeys to ensure that people who receive the shot have not previously been exposed to it. The Sputnik V vaccine uses a human adenovirus.

    REUTERS, BLOOMBERG

Meanwhile, China on Wednesday confirmed its first case of a new coronavirus variant recently detected in Britain. The patient is a 23-year-old woman from Shanghai who arrived from Britain on Dec 14.

BLOOMBERG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on January 01, 2021, with the headline China approves first vaccine for general public use. Subscribe