COVID-19 vaccine: Chinese company seeks co-financing for phase-3 trial in Bangladesh

China’s COVID-19 vaccine developing company Sinovac Biotech has sought finances from Bangladesh for conducting the phase-3 clinical trial of its vaccine candidate. The company was given permission to carry out phase-3 human trial about a month ago by the Bangladeshi government. 

Health Division Secretary of Bangladesh, Abdul Mannan confirmed on Sunday that Sinovac Biotech Ltd has sent a letter to the government seeking co-financing for the COVID-19 vaccine trial. He said the company had not asked for finances by the government while obtaining the approval to carry out trials.

The Chinese firm had originally sent the proposal to Bangladesh through the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research in Dhaka. The government gave final clearance for the clinical trial to the company on August 27. 

According to an official of the ICDDR,B, it is now entirely up to the government to decide if they will agree to the co-financing proposal as it was not mentioned in the original proposal of Sinovac Biotech. As per the agreement, Bangladesh was supposed to be given one lakh vaccines for free. It also gave the government the liberty to purchase on priority, an adequate quantum of vaccines from the Chinese company.

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China pushes emergency use of COVID-19 vaccine

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people who have been given COVID-19 vaccines in China, before final regulatory approval for general use. It's an unusual move that raises ethical and safety questions, as companies and governments worldwide race to develop a vaccine that will stop the spread of the new coronavirus.

Chinese companies earlier drew attention for giving the vaccine to their top executives and leading researchers before human trials to test their safety and efficacy had even begun. In recent months, they have injected a far larger number under an emergency use designation approved in June, and that number appears poised to rise.

It's unclear exactly how many people have been injected so far, but Chinese vaccine makes have offered some clues. State-owned Sinopharm subsidiary CNBG has given the vaccine to 350,000 people outside its clinical trials, which have about 40,000 people enrolled, a top CNBG executive said recently.

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Another company, SinoVac, has injected 90% of its employees and family members, or about 3,000 people, most under the emergency-use provision, CEO Yin Weidong said. It has also provided tens of thousands of rounds of its CoronaVac to the Beijing city government. Another candidate being jointly developed by the military and Cansino, a biopharmaceutical company, has been approved for emergency use in military personnel.

Chinese companies have four vaccines in phase 3 — two from Sinopharm and one each from SinoVac and Cansino. The Chinese government referenced the World Health Organization's emergency-use principles to create its own through a strict process, National Health Commission official Zheng Zhongwei said at a news conference. He said there have been no serious side effects in the clinical trials.

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(Image credits: AP)