China’s Sinopharm says its coronavirus vaccine 79.3% effective

A Chinese drugmaker said Wednesday its coronavirus vaccine was found to be 79.3% effective at preventing infection in preliminary data from the final round of testing, moving Beijing closer to possibly being able to fulfill its pledge to supply other developing countries.

State-owned Sinopharm is one of at least four Chinese developers that are part of a global race to create vaccines for the disease that has killed 1.8 million people. More than 1 million health care workers and others in China have received Chinese-developed vaccines under emergency approval while testing was under way, AP reported.

Sinopharm, or China National Pharmaceutical Group, has applied for approval of its vaccine following the third and final stage of testing, a unit of the company, Beijing Biological Products Institute Ltd., said on its website.

It would be the second vaccine from a Sinopharm unit, following a separate candidate developed by the company’s Wuhan Institute of Biological Products Ltd.

Chinese producers have at least six possible vaccines in the final stage of clinical trials.