E-Paper
Covid-19 vaccine offered by Chinese city for emergency use costs $60
CoronaVac, the Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech’s vaccine, is being offered in Jiaxing in eastern China’s Zhejiang province to care givers, especially epidemic-prevention workers, public service personnel and port inspectors.
A city in eastern China is offering an experimental Covid-19 vaccine outside of clinical trials for around $60 to high-risk groups under an emergency inoculation programme.
CoronaVac, the Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech’s vaccine, is being offered in Jiaxing in eastern China’s Zhejiang province to care givers, especially epidemic-prevention workers, public service personnel and port inspectors.
The experimental vaccine will be eventually offered to ordinary citizens, state media reports said on Friday.
“The vaccine, developed by Chinese company Sinovac Biotech Ltd, will be provided to people aged between 18 and 59 at a price of 400 yuan ($59.5) for 2 shots,” the Jiaxing Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was quoted by state media as saying.
The Jiaxing CDC added that as the vaccine hasn’t been “officially approved for marketing”, it is only approved for urgent use.
This vaccine contains two doses at an interval of 14-28 days, the CDC told state media.
“Its (the company’s) vaccine is in late stage trials in Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey, and the company has said that an interim analysis of Phase 3 trial data could come as early as November,” Reuters said in a report Friday.
In late June, China’s National Health Commission (NHC), under Chinese vaccine management law, had allowed emergency vaccines to be used on certain people at high risk of contracting the disease, such as medical workers, front-line pandemic control workers and customs workers – a move considered controversial by experts as the vaccines are still at an experimental stage.
On September 25, a top health official said Beijing had gained the “understanding and support” from the World Health Organization before starting the emergency use programme.
Since July, China has administered experimental vaccines to hundreds of thousands of people under the programme.
The WHO had told HT that Beijing’s decision to launch the programme was a domestic authorisation.
“WHO has not issued any Covid-19 vaccine Emergency Use Listings (EULs) yet -- yesterday we published draft EUL/PQ criteria for assessment of Covid-19 vaccines and the public is invited to comment,” the WHO had told HT in an emailed statement on September 26.
“What China has issued is a domestic emergency use authorisation. These are issued at the discretion of countries and not subject to WHO approval,” it said.
Until late September, 11 Chinese Covid-19 vaccines had entered clinical trials, with four in Phase 3.
Last week, China announced it will join COVAX, an international initiative aimed at ensuring equitable global access to Covid-19 vaccines, becoming the largest economy to support the initiative so far.
The number of daily cases of Covid-19, which first emerged from the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, has fallen drastically in mainland China from peaks seen in February.
Confirmed cases in the mainland is at over 85,500, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
More than 3,000 imported cases of Covid-19 have been reported as well.
