In China, the price of the vaccine will be affordable for the general public, Zheng added. (File)
Beijing:
The World Health Organization backed China’s campaign to vaccinate some people against the coronavirus in July while clinical trials were still ongoing, a Chinese health official said on Friday, though some experts said they were concerned about this decision.
China launched its emergency program in July, after communicating with the WHO in late June, according to Zheng Zhongwei, an official with the National Health Commission.
Hundreds of thousands of essential workers and other limited groups of people considered to be at high risk of infection have received the vaccine, although its efficacy and safety have not been fully established because phase 3 clinical trials were incomplete. , which raised concerns among experts.
“At the end of June, the Chinese State Council approved a program plan for the emergency use of the COVID-19 vaccine,” Zheng said at a press conference.
“After the approval, on June 29, we communicated with the relevant representatives of the WHO office in China and obtained the support and understanding of WHO,” Zheng said.
Countries have the autonomy to issue an emergency use authorization for any health product in accordance with national regulations and laws, Dr Mariangela Simão, WHO deputy director-general, told a conference on Friday. press in Geneva.
WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said earlier this month that the emergency use authorization for the coronavirus vaccine is a “temporary fix” and the long-term solution lies in completion of phase 3 trials.
Beijing has not released full details of its emergency use program.
At least three candidate vaccines, including two developed by the state-backed China National Biotec Group (CNBG) and one from Sinovac Biotech, all in phase 3 trials overseas, are included in the program for the use of emergency.
A fourth experimental vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics was approved for use in the Chinese military in June.
China’s annual COVID-19 vaccine production capacity is expected to reach 610 million doses by the end of 2020 and 1 billion doses by 2021, Zheng said.
In China, the price of the vaccine will be affordable for the general public, Zheng added.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
