Brazil has suspended final stage trials of Chinese-made coronavirus vaccine CoronaVac, in a blow for one of China’s leading developers that has already distributed the drug widely domestically and overseas.
Beijing-based Sinovac, the group that developed the vaccine, has been at the forefront of China’s efforts to win the global race to tackle Covid-19. Its vaccine uses a chemically inactivated version of the virus to spark an immune response.
Following positive results in early stage safety and efficacy clinical trials, Sinovac has been conducting phase 3, or final stage, trials to test effectiveness of its vaccine in the general population in Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey.