Chinese Covid-19 vaccine trial in Brazil halted after 'adverse incident'

The institution leading the trial stated that a death had occurred but it was unrelated to the vaccine.

Matthias Ang | November 10, 2020, 01:38 PM

The final-stage trial of a Covid-19 vaccine by a Chinese pharmaceutical firm has been suspended after an "adverse, serious incident" involving a volunteer occurred in Brazil, The Washington Post reported.

According to Brazil's health regulator, Anvisa, the incident involving Sinovac Biotech Ltd's vaccine, CoronaVac, had occurred on Oct. 29.

However, no details were given on what had happened.

Anvisa said: “With the interruption of the study, no new volunteer can be vaccinated."

Bloomberg reported that such incidents which happen in drug trials can include death, long-term or severe disability, the immediate risk of death and hospitalisation.

The potential vaccine developed by the Chinese firm would be produced by state-run Butantan Institute in Sao Paulo.

A death has occurred but it "has no relation with the vaccine"

Meanwhile, Dimas Covas, the head of Sao Paulo's medical research institute Butantan, which is conducting Sinovac's trial, said that the incident was related to a death, Reuters reported.

However, he stressed that the death itself is unrelated to the vaccine, adding that he found Anvisa's decision to halt the trial "strange". He said:

"As there are more than 10,000 volunteers at this moment, deaths can occur... It’s a death that has no relation with the vaccine and as such it is not the moment to interrupt the trials."

Brazil in talks to buy Pfizer vaccine

Bangkok Post further reported that the Sinovac vaccine has also come under fire from Brazil's President, Jair Bolsonaro, who has labelled it as a vaccine from "that other country."

However, Bolsonaro has left open the possibility that Brazil might still purchase the Chinese-made vaccine as long as it receives the approval of Anvisa, Reuters reported separately.

Bloomberg further highlighted that the setback for Sinovac came on the same day that Pfizer and BioNTech announced it had a vaccine candidate which is "more than 90 per cent effective" in preventing Covid-19 in participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection.

In addition, the Pfizer vaccine is also being tested in Brazil, with more than 3,100 volunteers involved in the states of Sao Paulo and Bahia.

As such, the Brazilian federal government has since entered into talks with Pfizer about purchasing its vaccine for the country's national vaccination programme.

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