Sinovac, developer of the first COVID-19 vaccine used in Turkey, invited by the Minister of Health to invest in the country for COVID-19 vaccine production
A Turkish media report indicates that Sinovac, the Chinese producer of the COVID-19 CoronaVac vaccine, has granted a license to Turkey to for COVID-19 vaccine production. The company’s CEO, Yin Weidong, said Turkey was one of five countries licensed to manufacture the vaccine and Indonesia, Brazil, Malaysia, and Egypt.
Sinovac approves production of its COVID-19 vaccine in Turkey
Yin said that only enough vaccine for 20% of the population had been delivered to Turkey, Brazil, and Indonesia, but this would not be sufficient. As a result, the licensing process for COVID-19 vaccine production in these countries has been initiated.
Although authorities acknowledged that delivery has been tricky, Turkey has ordered 100 million doses of vaccine from Sinovac, in a growing pandemic climate where countries struggle to access large quantities of vaccine. Turkey has so far administered approximately 25.3 million doses.
Turkey has reached an agreement with Sinovac to purchase 100 million doses of the vaccine. At the same time, the ministry said in a statement that they would be distributed to hospitals and health centres in the country after the necessary tests are carried out. It is now one of two vaccines available to the general public, along with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Yin added that the discrepancies in the vaccine’s clinical data were quite normal and that there was growing evidence that the vaccine was more effective when used in the real world, as reported by Bloomberg.
The inactive vaccine was more than 83% effective in Phase 3 trials conducted in Turkey. Recently, a study conducted by the Indonesian Ministry of Health found that the vaccine was 98% effective in preventing deaths and 96% effective in preventing hospitalizations in a group of vaccinated Indonesian medical personnel. The data came from 120,000 health workers in Jakarta who received the vaccine between January and March this year, lead researcher and health official Pandji Dhewantara said in a statement Wednesday.
Brazilian scientists had previously reported that the vaccine was 50.4 per cent effective in preventing symptomatic infections. CoronaVac is effective in preventing COVID-19 in people under age 60, but quality data on the risk of serious adverse events are lacking, according to World Health Organization experts.
A recent study by a Turkish university showed that the vaccine was most effective when injected in two doses, which is currently used in Turkey.
Sinovac, the developer of the first-ever COVID-19 vaccine to be used in Turkey, has been invited by the health minister to invest in the country
Last week, Mr. Koca warned that citizens going to health centres to get vaccinated without making an appointment slowed down the speed of immunizations. In the meantime, the health minister held an online meeting with Sinovac representatives and invited the company to invest in Turkey for COVID-19 vaccine production.
“We are willing to provide all the necessary support for a potential investment in our country. We attach great importance to COVID-19 vaccine production, influenza and hepatitis A vaccines. I also think we can design a cooperation model for the vaccine for which Turkey is currently conducting phase 3 trials,” Koca said at the meeting.
In a report Sunday, the Ministry of Health said that global cooperation against the pandemic was essential and a major issue for the international partnership. “In this way, your company will increase its market share while Turkey will make a technology transfer,” the minister also added.
Sinovac officials said that they would send a technical visit to Turkey to discuss collaboration methods. They also committed to setting up a local production unit in Turkey and to develop “the capacity for cooperation with Turkish scientists”. In addition, they expressed interest in helping to detect new variants in Turkey and provide more vaccine to the country “to get closer to the end of the pandemic.”
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