Five Additional Centers in Brazil Begin Testing Chinese Vaccine

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Five additional research centers in the country will this week begin testing the CoronaVac Chinese vaccine, developed by Sinovac Pharmaceutical, in partnership with the Butantan Institute.

Yesterday, August 5th, vaccines began to be administered to healthcare professionals at the University of Brasília (UnB), and today, testing will start at the Clínicas Hospital at UNICAMP (University of Campinas).

On Friday, August 7th, testing will take place at the Clínicas Hospital of the Federal University of Paraná, in Curitiba; and at the Medical School of São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo state. On Saturday, August 8th, it will be the turn of the São Lucas Hospital of the PUC (Pontifical Catholic University) in Porto Alegre. Rio Grande do Sul.

To date, there are currently five research centers conducting the trials. The Clínicas Hospital of the University of São Paulo Medical School (HCFMUSP) was the first to administer the CoronaVac, on July 21st.

On Thursday and Friday, July 30th and 31st, testing began at the Emílio Ribas Infectology Institute; at the Ribeirão Preto Medical School of the University of São Paulo (FMRP-USP); at the São Caetano do Sul Municipal University; and at the UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais) Drug Research and Development Center.

In all, 12 scientific centers have been selected for the third and final phase of the vaccine’s clinical trials. The schedule for the vaccine to be administered in the last two centers – the Albert Einstein Hospital, in the capital of São Paulo, and the Evandro Chagas National Institute of Infectology, in Rio de Janeiro – should be announced soon.

The tests with the CoronaVac will be conducted on 9,000 volunteers. Only healthcare professionals who have not had the disease and who work with Covid-19 patients will be eligible to take part in the trials. To meet the criteria, these healthcare professionals may not have other diseases or be undergoing trials for other vaccines. Female volunteers may not be pregnant.

The vaccine is administered in two doses at 14-day intervals. If proven successful, the vaccine will begin to be produced by the Butantan Institute.

The CoronaVac is among the most advanced vaccines against the novel coronavirus (Covid-19). It is now in its third stage, the clinical human trial phase. The Chinese laboratory has already tested the product on approximately 1,000 volunteers in China in phases 1 and 2. The experimental model administered in monkeys produced significant results in terms of immune response against the virus proteins.

The vaccine is inactivated, i.e. it contains only inactive virus fragments. By administering a dose, the immune system should produce antibodies against the causative agent of Covid-19. In the trial, half of the people will be administered the vaccine and half will be given a placebo, a harmless substance. Volunteers will not know which substance they receive.

Source: Agência Brasil