China is accelerating the delivery of vaccines to some developing countries behind the supply queue of new coronavirus vaccines produced by Western drugmakers and trying to lead the global vaccine market, but the vaccines do not appear to be as effective as they could be.
As Western drugmakers struggle to meet demand in their own countries, China has sent millions of doses of a new coronavirus vaccine made by China’s Kexing Biologicals to various parts of the world and continues to market another vaccine made by a subsidiary of Sinopharm.
According to Reuters, Indonesia and Turkey began mass vaccinations this week, and Brazil is reported to be launching a vaccination campaign soon, with even EU member state Hungary set to join in.
Azerbaijan will also begin vaccination efforts starting next week using a new crown vaccine developed in China. A spokesman for the Azerbaijani government did not say which Chinese vaccine would be used, but he said it would be the same as the one purchased by Turkey. Turkey is currently using a vaccine produced by China’s Kexing Biologicals.
Reuters reported that Turkey launched the vaccination on Thursday, with health care workers as the first recipients. More than 200,000 people had been vaccinated by that evening, more than the total number of people vaccinated in France in three weeks.
Hungary has complained about the “shockingly” slow pace of vaccine purchases by the EU on behalf of its 27 member states. Hungary reached a vaccine purchase agreement with China National Pharmaceutical Corporation this Thursday. If approved, it will be the first EU country to approve the use of Chinese vaccines.
Malaysia’s Pharmaniaga Bhd signed an order with China’s Kexing Biologicals on Tuesday to buy 14 million doses of the new coronavirus vaccine, which will be produced domestically at a later date.
Thailand also recently ordered 2 million doses of the neo-coronavirus vaccine from China and said it will begin receiving and starting vaccination efforts next month.
On Wednesday, Indonesian President Joko Widodo became the first person to receive the Coronavirus vaccine, subsequently launching one of the world’s largest vaccine programs. Indonesia is reportedly expected to receive 30 million doses of the Coxin vaccine by the end of March this year, with orders for more than 122 million doses in 2022.
Currently, Turkey already has more than 3 million doses of Coxin vaccine in stock and Brazil has 6 million doses.
While some studies on the Coxin vaccine have reported that it is less effective than products from Western drugmakers, the countries that buy them say the Coxin vaccine is effective in preventing the new coronavirus.
But perhaps more importantly, the Chinese vaccine is easier to administer and allows for a rapid start-up of mass vaccination programs, which could save lives and prevent national health systems from being overwhelmed.
Phase III clinical trials of the Kexing vaccine are being conducted in Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey. Previously, clinical results published in Turkey showed 91.3% vaccine protection, Indonesia showed 65.3% vaccine protection, and the latest data from the clinical trial in Brazil showed only 50.4% efficacy.
China responded quickly to this earlier, saying that the Kexin vaccine in Brazil was tested mainly on high-risk healthcare workers and patients with moderate and severe disease, and that the efficacy for this group was 100%. When mildly ill patients are added, the efficacy of protection is 77.96%.
China is facing a backlash from the new crown outbreak, which is now severe in Hebei and Heilongjiang provinces, with the highest number of single-day infections in 10 months. At least four cities have been closed and more than 28 million people have been banned from their homes. But the Chinese government has not announced plans to vaccinate the entire population against the new coronavirus. Critics say Beijing is rushing to sell domestic vaccines to developing countries to increase its international influence as part of China’s “big outreach” campaign.
In an international poll conducted by polling firm YouGov on Friday, people around the world generally said they would like to be vaccinated against the new strain, but most preferred vaccines developed in the United States or Germany and were skeptical of those made in China and Russia. More than 19,000 people took part in the poll.
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