COVID-19: China grants ‘conditional’ market approval to Sinopharm vaccine
China has granted “conditional” market approval to a Sinopharm vaccine with a reported 79% efficacy rate against Covid-19, health authorities confirmed.
This could signal a breakthrough in the battle to squash the pandemic in Asia and a major stride towards inoculating the world’s largest population.
Around 4.5 million Chinese, mainly health workers and workers destined for overseas jobs, have already been administered largely unproven emergency vaccines, according to authorities.
Deputy commissioner of the National Medical Products Administration Chen Shifei, on Thursday said his agency had granted a “conditional listing” to Sinopharm’s vaccine.
A conditional listing helps hustle emergency drugs to market in cases when clinical trials are yet to meet normal standards but indicate they will work.
Nation
