Indonesian company set to produce vaccines on Tuesday said data from a late-stage trial in Indonesia indicates that a COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech has 97-per-cent efficacy.
Iwan Setiawan, spokesperson for Indonesia’s state-owned vaccine maker, Bio Farma, told a press conference that based on “preliminary data, one month into the trial, we can say that its efficacy is up to 97 per cent.’’
He cautioned however, that an immune response produced by the vaccine did not necessarily translate to protection from COVID-19 adding that “we’ll find out in January.’’
According to Sinovac’s spokesperson in Beijing, the company has not yet obtained effective data on the vaccine.
It was expected that trials in Brazil would generate such data, the Jiemian website reported.
Bio Farma is expected to start producing the shots early 2021, pending the results of phase-3 clinical trials.
Indonesia on Sunday already took delivery of 1.2 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine from China, which it wants to authorise for emergency use, depending on the results. (dpa/NAN)
