Peruvian Health Ministry temporarily suspended clinical trials of the Sinopharm vaccine that are carried out in Peru.

“The decision to temporarily suspend clinical trials is a safety measure contemplated in the regulation of Clinical Trials and protocols established to protect the health of research subjects during the third phase of testing of vaccine candidates for COVID-19,” the Ministry said in a statement.

COMUNICADO | El Minsa, en relación a la decisión del @INS_Peru de suspender temporalmente los ensayos clínicos de la vacuna de Sinopharm que se realizan en el Perú, hace de conocimiento público lo siguiente:
https://t.co/YDrU6xjs9d

— Ministerio de Salud (@Minsa_Peru) December 12, 2020

Sinopharm, a Chinese state-owned enterprise, is conducting its trials in Peru with some 12,000 volunteers.

In April 2020, Sinopharm's parent company China National Pharmaceutical Group began developing chemically-inactivated whole virus vaccines for COVID-19, whose Phase II results were published in The Lancet and Journal of the American Medical Association respectively.

Sinopharm is conducting Phase III trials of the vaccine in Argentina, Bahrain, Brazil, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, and United Arab Emirates. (ILKHA)