Coronavirus: 99% confident that COVID-19 vaccine will work, says Chinese firm

[beijingwalker]

Coronavirus: 99% confident that COVID-19 vaccine will work, says Chinese firm
The Beijing-based biotech company is currently building a commercial plant with the objective of delivering 100 million doses.

Tom Cheshire
Asia correspondent @chesh

Saturday 30 May 2020 02:29, UK

Inside biotech company Sinovac, where work is taking place to create a coronavirus vaccine

Chinese scientists working on a COVID-19 vaccine have told Sky News they are "99%" sure it will be effective.

Sinovac, a Beijing-based biotech company, currently has its coronavirus vaccine in stage 2 trials, with more than 1,000 volunteers participating. Sky News is the first British broadcaster to visit its labs.


The company also said it is in preliminary talks to hold stage 3 trials - the final part of the trials process - in the UK.

Samples of the vaccine are being worked on

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

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


Last month Sinovac published results in the academic journal Science which showed the vaccine, called CoronaVac, protects monkeys from infection by the coronavirus.


The biggest problem the company faces is the low number of COVID-19 cases in China, which makes testing the vaccine in an epidemic situation difficult. As a result, the company is looking further afield for stage 3 trials.

Helen Yang, senior director of investor relations, told Sky News: "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 is pressing ahead with production, though, even as it continues research.

In the company's headquarters in northwest Beijing, orange and white packets are already ready to go.

The aim of parallel tracks is that mass production of the vaccine can begin straight away, if the trials are successful and the vaccine gets regulatory approval.

It is currently building a commercial plant in another part of Beijing with the objective of delivering 100 million doses.

That number, large as it is, means limiting who gets the vaccine.

"It is our recommendation that it is not the whole population that gets the vaccine," Ms Yang told Sky News.

"We are discussing this and recommending it to other countries as well.

"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."

And the vaccine won't be here soon. The stage 2 trials have months to run before Stage 3 can begin, Ms Yang pointed out, and then the vaccine requires regulatory approval.

Asked whether she was sure of success, Ms Yang told Sky News: "It's very hard to say, very difficult to say at the moment. There are uncertainties, but the data: so far, so good."

There is a global race to come up with a COVID-19 vaccine - but questions remain about how it would be distributed, and whether countries should prioritise their own populations.

Drugmaker AstraZeneca, which is working with researchers at Oxford University, said the UK would be the first country to get access to the vaccine it is developing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged that any Chinese vaccine would be a "global public good", even though the practical results of that are unclear. EU leaders have made a similar commitment, but US President Donald Trump has not.

Ms Yang told Sky News: "We are already considering not only China but also the whole world, not only for conducting a trial but also how to supply a solution for countries including China and outside China."

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavi...-vaccine-will-work-says-chinese-firm-11996787

 

[beijingwalker]

Vaccines should first go to friendly countries, US can wait.

 

[mazeto]

Vaccines should first go to friendly countries, US can wait.

Send the vaccine free to the poorer countries ,free , first. China will derive a lot of goodwill.
Right now it is being blamed by the five-eyes and everyone believe them since they control the media. In my country there is acute hate of China presently because of the suffering. One way to partially reverse it would be early and free vaccine. Even the boycott China brigade would be forced to accept it. Instead of rivalry the two big nations should be friends.

 

[alee92nawaz]

Coronavirus: 99% confident that COVID-19 vaccine will work, says Chinese firm
The Beijing-based biotech company is currently building a commercial plant with the objective of delivering 100 million doses.

Tom Cheshire
Asia correspondent @chesh

Saturday 30 May 2020 02:29, UK

Inside biotech company Sinovac, where work is taking place to create a coronavirus vaccine

Chinese scientists working on a COVID-19 vaccine have told Sky News they are "99%" sure it will be effective.

Sinovac, a Beijing-based biotech company, currently has its coronavirus vaccine in stage 2 trials, with more than 1,000 volunteers participating. Sky News is the first British broadcaster to visit its labs.


The company also said it is in preliminary talks to hold stage 3 trials - the final part of the trials process - in the UK.

Samples of the vaccine are being worked on

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

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


Last month Sinovac published results in the academic journal Science which showed the vaccine, called CoronaVac, protects monkeys from infection by the coronavirus.


The biggest problem the company faces is the low number of COVID-19 cases in China, which makes testing the vaccine in an epidemic situation difficult. As a result, the company is looking further afield for stage 3 trials.

Helen Yang, senior director of investor relations, told Sky News: "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 is pressing ahead with production, though, even as it continues research.

In the company's headquarters in northwest Beijing, orange and white packets are already ready to go.

The aim of parallel tracks is that mass production of the vaccine can begin straight away, if the trials are successful and the vaccine gets regulatory approval.

It is currently building a commercial plant in another part of Beijing with the objective of delivering 100 million doses.

That number, large as it is, means limiting who gets the vaccine.

"It is our recommendation that it is not the whole population that gets the vaccine," Ms Yang told Sky News.

"We are discussing this and recommending it to other countries as well.

"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."

And the vaccine won't be here soon. The stage 2 trials have months to run before Stage 3 can begin, Ms Yang pointed out, and then the vaccine requires regulatory approval.

Asked whether she was sure of success, Ms Yang told Sky News: "It's very hard to say, very difficult to say at the moment. There are uncertainties, but the data: so far, so good."

There is a global race to come up with a COVID-19 vaccine - but questions remain about how it would be distributed, and whether countries should prioritise their own populations.

Drugmaker AstraZeneca, which is working with researchers at Oxford University, said the UK would be the first country to get access to the vaccine it is developing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged that any Chinese vaccine would be a "global public good", even though the practical results of that are unclear. EU leaders have made a similar commitment, but US President Donald Trump has not.

Ms Yang told Sky News: "We are already considering not only China but also the whole world, not only for conducting a trial but also how to supply a solution for countries including China and outside China."

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavi...-vaccine-will-work-says-chinese-firm-11996787

Weren't they negotiating for a phase 3 trial in Pakistan?

 

[sinait]

Send the vaccine free to the poorer countries ,free , first. China will derive a lot of goodwill.
Right now it is being blamed by the five-eyes and everyone believe them since they control the media. In my country there is acute hate of China presently because of the suffering. One way to partially reverse it would be early and free vaccine. Even the boycott China brigade would be forced to accept it. Instead of rivalry the two big nations should be friends.

Funny why some people always hankering for free giveaways.
Your hate for China is MISPLACED and MISLED by US PROPAGANDA.
I will NOT BE SURPRISED if the suffering in your country comes courtesy of the US.

We should all be happy if China will sell it at low cost or at a small profit so the enterprise could be self sustaining.
We must keep in mind China is a developing country that does not print currency that US the holder of the world's reserve currency does.
Which country will get it for free or at low cost can be decided by WHO which will get generous contributions from China.

China at GDP per capita of ONLY $10,000 is contributing $2 billion to the WHO vs the US at $65,000 SHIRKING RESPOSIBILITY and withdrawing from WHO.
China also have to care for their huge 1.4 billion population.

It is UNBELIEVABLE that people STILL TRUST THE US after admitting "WE LIED, WE CHEATED, WE STOLE" and IRAQ WMD LIES.
.

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

I don't know about vaccines but...

the researcher is not exercising proper PPE. wtf do you need suit for when you don't wear goggles?

 

[sinait]

I don't know about vaccines but...

the researcher is not exercising proper PPE. wtf do you need suit for when you don't wear goggles?

Googles not essential as test tubes won't be spitting or coughing directly at researcher face.
Which often happens when handling patients or doing swap tests.
.

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

Googles not essential as test tubes won't be spitting or coughing directly at researcher face.
Which often happens when handling patients or doing swap tests.
.

Goggles are a typical requirement in most R&D labs not only to protect yourself but also to prevent you from contaminating samples and equipment.

 

[Rusty]

I really hope this is real
But I would rather wait until verified by western scientists
China has a history after all
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018...s-children-fake-vaccines-180723121316598.html

China: Hundreds of thousands of children given fake vaccines
Executives from China's second-largest pharmaceutical company, Changsheng Bio-Technology Company, have admitted to falsifying test results and producing fake vaccines.


Hundreds of thousands of children in China may have been given fabricated vaccines produced by China's second-largest pharmaceutical company.

Health regulators found that the drug maker violated safety standards.

It is the second scandal to hit the company in the past week.

Al Jazeera's Adrian Brown reports from Beijing.

 

[dbc]

Vaccines should first go to friendly countries, US can wait.

That’s a hard pass on the Chinese vaccine for the US. Seems even Chinese citizens have no confidence in Chinese vaccines as evidenced by the Shanghai survey. Fortunately China has many friends to step forth as willing guinea pigs.

In July, China experienced its “worst public health crisis in years” as stated by South China Morning Post. Chinese vaccine maker Changsheng Biotechnology was found to have fabricated production and inspection records and to have arbitrarily changed process parameters and equipment during its production of freeze-dried human rabies vaccines. Furthermore, substandard diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus (DPT) vaccines produced by Changsheng Biotechnology were administered to 215 184 Chinese children; and 400 520 substandard DPT vaccines produced by Wuhan Institute of Biological Products were sold in Hebei and Chongqing. On July 25, China's drug regulator launched an investigation into all vaccine producers across the country. 15 people from Changsheng Biotechnology, including the chairman, have been detained by Chinese authorities.
This latest vaccine scandal follows on from a series of fake and substandard food and drugs issues in China. As a result, many parents have lost faith in the vaccine system. Although no cases of death or other severe consequences relevant to the substandard rabies and DPT vaccines have been documented as of July 31, the substandard vaccines have been reported as being poisonous in social media and on the internet.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31695-7/fulltext


In total, 1,188 (92.5%) individuals participated. For most items on the scale, parents expressed positive beliefs about vaccines. However, about half of parents somewhat or strongly agreed that new vaccines carried more risks than older vaccines, and 71.6% somewhat or strongly agreed that they were concerned about serious adverse effects. Seven items from the Vaccine Hesitancy Scale were highly correlated and mapped onto “lack of confidence”; the other three items were analysed separately. Compared to mothers, fathers had less lack of confidence (β: -0.06, 95% CI: -0.12, -0.01), and individuals living in the outer suburbs (β: 0.13, 95% CI: 0.01, 0.25) and rural non-locals (β: 0.10, 95% CI: 0.02, 0.18) had greater lack of confidence in vaccines compared to their urban or local counterparts, respectively.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0209117

 

[Beast]

Funny why some people always hankering for free giveaways.
Your hate for China is MISPLACED and MISLED by US PROPAGANDA.
I will NOT BE SURPRISED if the suffering in your country comes courtesy of the US.

We should all be happy if China will sell it at low cost or at a small profit so the enterprise could be self sustaining.
We must keep in mind China is a developing country that does not print currency that US the holder of the world's reserve currency does.
Which country will get it for free or at low cost can be decided by WHO which will get generous contributions from China.

China at GDP per capita of ONLY $10,000 is contributing $2 billion to the WHO vs the US at $65,000 SHIRKING RESPOSIBILITY and withdrawing from WHO.
China also have to care for their huge 1.4 billion population.

It is UNBELIEVABLE that people STILL TRUST THE US after admitting "WE LIED, WE CHEATED, WE STOLE" and IRAQ WMD LIES.
.

His account is suspicious as a clone. They come here to steal, lies and spread misinfo. No point waste your time on this fake account.

 

[Foxtrot Delta]

I hope they succeed

 

[mazeto]

His account is suspicious as a clone. They come here to steal, lies and spread misinfo. No point waste your time on this fake account.

Thank you. You are one of the socially autistic Chinese mentioned by Tower9 that manage to offend everyone you come across. China should employ more sentient cyber soldiers .

Funny why some people always hankering for free giveaways.
Your hate for China is MISPLACED and MISLED by US PROPAGANDA.
I will NOT BE SURPRISED if the suffering in your country comes courtesy of the US.

We should all be happy if China will sell it at low cost or at a small profit so the enterprise could be self sustaining.
We must keep in mind China is a developing country that does not print currency that US the holder of the world's reserve currency does.
Which country will get it for free or at low cost can be decided by WHO which will get generous contributions from China.

China at GDP per capita of ONLY $10,000 is contributing $2 billion to the WHO vs the US at $65,000 SHIRKING RESPOSIBILITY and withdrawing from WHO.
China also have to care for their huge 1.4 billion population.

It is UNBELIEVABLE that people STILL TRUST THE US after admitting "WE LIED, WE CHEATED, WE STOLE" and IRAQ WMD LIES.
.

Well sell it then , it confirms the narrative of profiting from suffering, unleashed by China.
Or, sell it to the rich countries and gift it to the poor. If China lets WHO decide it would be a propaganda coup. It's just a suggestion with good intention, no need to get upset.

 

[sinait]

Thank you. You are one of the socially autistic Chinese mentioned by Tower9 that manage to offend everyone you come across. China should employ more sentient cyber soldiers .


Well sell it then , it confirms the narrative of profiting from suffering, unleashed by China.
Or, sell it to the rich countries and gift it to the poor. If China lets WHO decide it would be a propaganda coup. It's just a suggestion with good intention, no need to get upset.

WOW recovering cost for sustenance is PROFITING.
You come from a FAIL STATE NATION?
Or from a SUPER OIL RICH like KSA?
.

 

[UKBengali]

I want to keep out the politics but 99% success rate looks promising.

We need as many vaccines as possible to be safe and have some level of effectiveness against the virus.