Sinovac's COVID shot highly effective against serious illness- Malaysia study

Pfizer

24/09/2021 07:33

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Sinovac's  SVA.O  COVID-19
vaccine is highly effective against serious illness, although
rival shots from Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca showed better
protection rates, a large real world study from Malaysia showed.
    The latest data is a boost to the Chinese firm, whose
COVID-19 vaccine has been under growing scrutiny over its
effectiveness following reports of infections among healthcare
workers fully immunized with the Sinovac shot in Indonesia and
Thailand.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2OJ183
    The study, conducted by the Malaysian government, found that
0.011% of about 7.2 million recipients of the Sinovac shot
required treatment in intensive care units (ICU) for COVID-19
infections, health officials told reporters on Thursday. 
    By contrast, 0.002% of about 6.5 million recipients of the
Pfizer  PFE.N /BioNTech  22UAy.DE  vaccine needed ICU treatment
for COVID-19 infections, while 0.001% of 744,958 recipients of
the AstraZeneca  AZN.L  shot required similar treatment.
    Kalaiarasu Peariasamy, a director at the Institute for
Clinical Research that conducted the study along with a national
COVID-19 taskforce, said vaccinations - regardless of the brand
- have reduced the risk of admission to intensive care by 83%
and lowered the risk of death by 88% based on a smaller study
involving about 1.26 million people.
    "The breakthrough rate for intensive care unit admission is
extremely low," he said, adding overall ICU admissions among
fully vaccinated individuals stood at 0.0066%. 
    Mortality rate of the fully vaccinated people was also low
at 0.01% and the majority of them were either above 60 years of
age or with comorbidities.
    There were differences in the demographics of the recipients
of the three vaccines and it could have resulted in the
different results, Kalaiarasu said.
    Many of AstraZeneca recipients were in the "mid-adulthood
age", while the Pfizer and Sinovac shots were "very much for the
vulnerable population," he said. 
    AstraZeneca recipients also accounted for a much smaller
proportion of the study, which involved about 14.5 million fully
vaccinated individuals and conducted for more than five months
since April 1.
    In July, Malaysia said it will stop administering the
Sinovac vaccine once its supplies end, as it has a sufficient
number of other vaccines for its programme.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2OR0V7
    The Sinovac vaccine has been widely used in several
countries including China, Indonesia, Thailand and Brazil, and
the company said earlier this month it had supplied 1.8 billion
doses at home and abroad.
    Malaysia has fully vaccinated 58.7% of its 32 million
population and gave at least one dose to 68.8%.

 (Reporting by Liz Lee, writing by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by
Miyoung Kim and Michael Perry)
 ((ananthalakshmi.as@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter:
@AnanthalakshmiA;))