CoronaVac, the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Chinese company Sinovac, has been shown to be 78% effective during phase 3 tests in Brazil, its local partner, the Butantan Institute, announced Thursday.
“Today is a very important day for Brazil, for Brazilians, for life and health,” Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria said at a news conference, along with state health officials and officials from the Butantan Institute.
“This result means that the vaccine developed by the Butantan Institute has a high level of efficacy and effectiveness in protecting Brazilian life against Covid-19,” Doria added.
The phase 3 trials involved 13,000 health workers across eight Brazilian states. According to Reuters, Butantan Director Dimas Covas said the entire CoronaVac data would have been released in an anonymous scientific publication but did not provide a timeline.
Doria also said that his government, together with the Butantan Institute, had begun the process of applying for an emergency use permit from ANVISA, Brazil’s national medical body, “with the aim of starting the vaccine in in São Paulo ”from January 25th.
Even though the efficiency falls short of the success rates of Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine candidates, CoronaVac is easier to carry and can be stored at normal cooling temperatures, Reuters reports.