The South American country of Brazil has halted clinical testing of a Chinese vaccine against the Wuhan virus, citing “serious adverse events”. The biotech company that developed the vaccine claimed the incident had nothing to do with the vaccine. As the vaccine in question has already been approved for emergency use by the Chinese authorities, there is concern that the health of local health care and disease prevention workers may be at risk.
Three new Chinese coronavirus vaccines were unveiled for the first time at the China International Fair for Trade in Services held in Beijing two months ago. The vaccine is expected to be launched at the end of this year at the earliest, with a production capacity of more than 300 million doses per year,” said Kexing, which has entered its third phase of clinical trials. Kexing said it had tested the vaccine against different strains of new coronaviruses in Europe, the Middle East and the United States, and believed the vaccine would be effective against them all.
But just as both Sinopharm and Pfizer were rumored to have made a breakthrough in the testing of a new coronavirus vaccine, Brazil is rumored to have halted the testing of a vaccine from Kexing.
Brazil’s health regulator said in a statement Monday that it had suspended local clinical testing of the “Creaform” vaccine after a “serious adverse event” that occurred last month on May 29, but the authorities did not explain what the adverse reaction was and where it occurred.
Brazilian media quoted the head of a research institute, Corning’s local partner, as saying that a volunteer involved in the clinical trial had died, but the cause of death was unrelated to the vaccine test.
The definition of a “serious adverse event” is quite broad, according to Ren Ruihong, a former executive of the China Red Cross Foundation’s Critical Illness Assistance Program.
Ren Ruihong: “The first thing that goes wrong with safety is death. That’s the most serious. There’s also irreversible disability. The government has also said that it will continue to work with the government to improve the quality of life of the people. But in this case they didn’t disclose the details, maybe there’s a confidentiality agreement or something, right?”
Our reporter on Tuesday tried to contact a representative of Kexing Bio surnamed Zheng. They repeatedly insisted the reporter called the wrong number.
Mr. Zheng: “Do you not understand? I told you, I’m not a Zheng. You called the wrong number. Don’t you know that?”
In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the two parties had communicated on the incident.
Wang Wenbin: “We note that Beijing Kexing Bio has responded to the reports, and according to Kexing’s partner in Brazil, the Butantan Institute, has determined that the incident in question is not related to the vaccine, and Kexing will continue to communicate with the Brazilian side on this.”
“Kratiflu has been approved for emergency use by Chinese authorities for inoculation of specific groups of people, including local epidemic prevention and health care workers, to create an immune barrier against fall and winter epidemics. The former senior executive of the Chinese Red Cross Foundation, Ren Ruihong, said it was worrying that safety issues had surfaced at this critical stage.
Ren Ruihong: “The level of China’s vaccine manufacturing is not that there is any technical problem, but the system makes it impossible to raise vaccine production to the world’s advanced level with transparent and efficient operation mechanisms like those in Western countries. A few years ago, a vaccine transportation-related incident came to light. Because the vaccines were to be transported in the cold chain, the temperature did not reach the temperature, resulting in the failure of the vaccines, and the children were vaccinated. It’s impossible for journalists to get more information like the foreign media, they are completely silenced.”
The Brazilian government announced earlier that it had agreed to buy 46 million doses of vaccines from Corning Bio, which will be included in the national immunization program and offered early next year, but President Jair Bolsonaro later said that he would not allow the vaccines to be imported into Brazil, describing Brazilians as “guinea pigs”.
In addition to Brazil, Corning’s Xincrown vaccine is also in the final stages of testing in Indonesia and Turkey, with neither country calling a halt to testing.
On the other hand, the new coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals of the United States has shown a 90% efficacy rate in the third phase of clinical trials, and all parties are cautiously optimistic about the efficacy of the vaccine, but it is expected that only a dose for 25 million people can be produced this year.
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