Paraná signs agreement to test SinoPharm's Chinese vaccine

The government of Paraná has closed a partnership with China National Pharmaceutical Group (SinoPharm) to test a candidate vaccine against the new coronavirus (Sars-CoV-2).
The agreement, concluded through the Institute of Technology of Paraná (Tecpar), provides that the state will have access to the results of the first two phases and that, if successful, "there will be a transfer of technology by Sinopharm so that Tecpar can produce the vaccine".
According to an official statement from the government, the test is expected to begin as early as August and last about three months. In addition to Brazil, the candidate vaccine is being tested on 15,000 people in the United Arab Emirates.
After announcing the partnership with China, the Government of Paraná said it is in negotiations for the production of another vaccine, this time developed by Russia.
The SinoPharm vaccine uses the inactivated Sars-CoV-2 virus and was developed in partnership with the Beijing Institute of Biological Products and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products - the city that was the first epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The two initial phases, which began in April, were performed with 1,120 Chinese volunteers at three different dosages - low, medium and high - and all received two doses. The tests performed on the 14th, 21st and 28th day after immunization showed promising results in the mean dosage, with 97.6% of the volunteers presenting an immunological response on the 21st day and 100% of them on the 28th day.
The company did not inform what was the dosage used in each of the ranges and what was the immune response in those who received the low and high doses. However, SinoPharm assures that there was no serious reaction to the vaccine, which was considered safe for extensive testing.
According to Xinhua, the drugmaker has the capacity to produce about 200 million doses per year of the vaccine if it is approved.
In all, China is developing 19 vaccines that are candidates to fight the pandemic.
In addition to the SinoPharm vaccine (which does not have a name disclosed), Brazil is receiving tests from three other candidates against Covid-19.
ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, is being tested in a partnership with the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp); Sinovac Biotech's Chinese CoronaVac is in testing because of a partnership with the Butantan Institute and the government of São Paulo; and BNT 162b2 from pfizer pharmaceutical company and German company BioNTech should be tested in the cities of São Paulo and Salvador.
On Thursday (30), the CoronaVac vaccine had the tests expanded and began to be tested in health professionals who attend the Emílio Ribas Hospital, in the state capital.