Vaccine from China's Sinopharm is over 79% effective, drugmaker says
Lily Kuo, The Washington Post
Dec. 31, 2020
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TAIPEI, Taiwan - China on Thursday approved a coronavirus vaccine developed by Sinopharm, a day after the state-owned drugmaker reported the shot was 79.3% effective, paving the way for millions of doses of Chinese vaccines to enter the global market.
Regulators gave the green light to the two-shot vaccine from China National Biotec Group (CNBG), a Sinopharm subsidiary, an official with China's National Medical Products Administration said at a media briefing.
The vaccine, the first approved for general use in China, is crucial to Beijing as it struggles to keep the outbreak contained and deflect criticism of its handling of the virus, which emerged in Wuhan in late 2019.