The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on May 7 that it will put the Covid-19 vaccine produced by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products, commonly referred to as the Sinopharm (Beijing) vaccine, onto the Emergency Use Listing, the first China-made vaccine to be so authorized by the WHO.
According to Director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus, the WHO has approved six Covid-19 vaccines for emergency listing, which the WHO finds safe and effective for general use.
An inactivated vaccine, the Sinopharm Beijing’s vaccine has an efficacy of nearly 80 percent in preventing mild symptoms, and nearly 100 percent in preventing severe disease and death, according to Shao Yiming, a researcher at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and a consultant on the WHO’s vaccine research and development commission. Phase III clinical trials were conducted in several overseas countries.
Shao told China Central Television (CCTV) that the WHO approval helps China to fulfill its promise to make Chinese Covid-19 vaccines a global public good and thus assist pandemic control in developing countries.
According to Shao, China has exported the Sinopharm vaccine to more than 60 countries and another vaccine produced by Sinovac Biotech to 30 countries.
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