Chinese coronavirus vaccines arrive in Turkey

The plane carrying the vaccines, which was produced by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac, landed in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, early on Wednesday.

The first shipment was delayed for two weeks due to a COVID-19 case in Beijing customs and high alert against infections there, according to Turkish officials.

On 6 December, Ministry of Health Koca announced that 50 million doses of CoronaVac, the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac, by the end of February 2021, and 10 million doses of Pfizer and BioNTech’s BNT162b2 for December 2020.

CoronaVac has been undergoing Phase III trials in Brazil, Chile, Indonesia and Turkey since the mid-2020.

CoronaVac uses a similar, more traditional technology as in BBIBP-CorV and BBV152, other inactivated virus vaccines for COVID-19 being developed in Phase III trials.

Turkey released Phase III results from an interim analysis of 29 cases which showed an efficacy rate of 91.25% based on the data of 1,322 participants in a trial involving 7,371 volunteers, a confusing readout when compared to the reported efficacy of between 50% and 90% in Brazil. (ILKHA)