Brazil suspends clinical trials of Chinese COVID-19 vaccine after “serious accident”

Rio de Janeiro: Brazilian health authorities announced Monday that they had suspended clinical trials of an experimental Chinese vaccine against the emerging corona virus after one of the volunteers was exposed to a “serious accident”, the nature of which was not specified.

The Health Vigilance Agency (Infisa) said in a statement that it “has decided to stop clinical trials of the Coronavac vaccine after a serious accident” on 29 October.

The agency did not explain what a serious accident was, but it did make it clear that this type of accident could be death or side effects that can cause death, severe disability, a condition requiring hospitalization or a “clinically significant event.”

This setback for the “Coronavac” vaccine, developed by the Chinese laboratory “Sinovac Biotech”, comes the same day that the giant American pharmaceutical group “Pfizer” announced that its experimental anti-Corona vaccine “proved effective. 90% “in the prevention of Covid-19 disease.

As for the United States, which has already reserved 100 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, this announcement means that the first vaccinations can begin before the end of the year, provided that the safety of this vaccine is confirmed, which should take place later. next week.

Pfizer must first obtain clearance from the US Medicines Agency (FDA) which will determine whether this vaccine is safe and effective.

The experimental vaccines Pfizer and Sinovac have reached the third and final phase of testing, which means that it will decide, in the light of the results of these studies, whether the health authorities will authorize them or not.

Clinical trials of both vaccines are underway in Brazil, the second country in the world after the United States for the number of deaths due to the epidemic (over 162,000 deaths).

The Chinese vaccine has been at the center of a political battle in Brazil between one of its biggest supporters, Governor Joao Doria, and its most prominent political opponent, President Jair Bolsonaro.

The far-right president launched a ferocious attack on “Koronavac”, saying it came from “that other country”, and instead was promoting a vaccine developed by the University of Oxford in collaboration with the British pharmaceutical group “AstraZeneca”.