CanSinoBIO says COVID-19 shot may be less effective over time
- CanSinoBIO’s chief scientific officer says a second shot given to trial participants six months after their first injection could offer substantial protection against the virus
- Tao says accurate and precise results could only be gathered after more clinical trials
(Karachi) As Pakistan is in the process of immunizing its population with China's CanSinoBio COVID-19 vaccine, the manufacturer has transpired that the efficacy rate for its single-dose drug may fall over time although it should still have a rate of 50 percent or more five to six months after inoculation, Arab News reported.
The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) had approved the CanSino vaccine among four others and declared it safe and effective after trials. CanSino Biologics Inc. is one of the main suppliers of COVID vaccines to Pakistan. The government is planning to import CanSino vaccine jabs in bulk to package three million doses locally.
CanSinoBIO’s chief scientific officer Zhu Tao said that a second shot given to trial participants six months after their first injection could offer substantial protection against the virus.
He added, “A booster shot six months later led to seven times to 10-times increase in neutralizing antibody levels, so we expect in this case efficacy could reach over 90 percent.” However, he stated that accurate and precise results could only be gathered after more clinical trials.
Earlier, the government announced it will receive shipments of China’s CanSino Biologics coronavirus vaccine for commercial sale.
Health officials said the single-dose Chinese vaccine could be administered to people of all ages as it was found effective among people from 18 to 80 plus years of age during trials in Pakistan and other countries of the world.
They disclosed that the CanSino Biologics Inc.’s vaccine would also be ‘manufactured partially in Pakistan,’ following its successful conclusion of trials at five leading health institutions in the country.
The DRAP had given emergency use authorization to CanSino Biologics’s single-dose vaccine in the second week of February 2021 after the Chinese manufacturer released interim efficacy results from a multi-country trial, which included Pakistan, showing 65.7 percent efficacy in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 cases and a 90.98 percent success rate in stopping severe infections.
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