Peruvian authorities have suspended clinical trials of the Chinese state-run Sinopharm 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine after a subject was found to have neurological problems in the country.
The National Institute of Health (INS) said today that it decided to suspend the vaccine trial after a subject developed difficulty moving his arm, local media reported.
We informed the regulatory authorities a few days ago, as requested, that we had a subject (in the trial) with neurological symptoms that could be consistent with a condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome,” said lead researcher German Malaga at a press conference. ” Guillain-Barre syndrome is a rare, non-infectious neuropathy that affects the movement of the hands and feet and extremities.
A clinical trial of the vaccine in Peru by China National Pharmaceutical Group with about 12,000 subjects was scheduled to end this week.
If this vaccine trial is successful, the Peruvian government is expected to purchase up to 20 million doses of the vaccine to provide vaccination to 2/3 of the country’s population. The success of this vaccine trial will not be known until after mid-2021.
Approximately 60,000 people worldwide have been vaccinated with Sinopharm’s vaccine, including subjects in Argentina, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Peru has one of the highest per capita mortality rates from the epidemic in the world, with 36,499 deaths and 979,111 infections as of today. Peru’s economy has been hit hard by the epidemic, with gross domestic product (GDP) shrinking by more than 30% in the second quarter.
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