Beijing-based pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech’s CoronaVac vaccine was recently found to be 49.6 per cent effective in real-world data from Brazil. However, considering the global demand for COVID-19 vaccines and the supply-demand gaps, Chinese vaccines remain crucial for developing nations’ vaccination programmes irrespective of real-world data, says GlobalData.

China has so far provided COVID-19 vaccine aid to more than 50 developing nations and Sinovac Biotech alone has already supplied over 150 million doses to other countries. 

Prashant Khadayate, Pharma Analyst, GlobalData, comments,“Chinese vaccines have shown varied efficacy rates across countries in clinical trial settings from just over 50 per cent to 79 per cent. Real-world data serves to validate the data observed in a clinical trial setting. However, low efficacy observed in real-world data will not hurt the future uptake as developed nations have already stockpiled large quantities of COVID-19 vaccines from leading manufactures like Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson, leading to inadequate supply for developing nations.” 

According to GlobalData’s ‘Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pharma Executive Briefing – April 20, 2021’, among the top 15 economies, Brazil and Mexico are the only two countries that have approved Chinese vaccines. 

It is important to note that most of the COVID-19 vaccines being supplied to developing countries are by companies based out of Russia, China, and India. 

As a result, the WHO-backed COVAX initiative has slashed the number of vaccines to be delivered by the end of May from about 240 million doses to 145 million doses. Moreover, the COVAX initiative was only able to supply 41 million doses so far of its two billion doses promised by the end of 2021.  

Khadayate concludes, “The supply of COVID-19 vaccines from China are expected to improve further and be of increased importance amid the supply issues within India in the wake of second wave of COVID-19.”