Beijing, June 14: Sinovac Biotech, the Chinese pharmaceutical firm which has emerged as the top candidate to develop a vaccine against coronavirus, claimed success in phase I and phase II of the human trials. The potential vaccine, which it has named as CoronaVac, was successful in inducing antibodies against the SARS-CoV-19 virus which causes the COVID-19 infection.

The vaccine maker, in a statement, said 90 percent of the people were administered with the vaccine developed antibodies which successfully resisted the COVID-19 infection. Not only was the vaccine found effective, no major side-effect was recorded on those who were part of the trials. Coronavirus Vaccine: AstraZeneca Awarded Deal to Supply Europe With 400 Million Doses by 2020-End.

Sinovac would submit the findings of its trial to top medical journals for peer-based critical review. A total of 743 people, with no comorbidities, were selected for the trials. They were aged in the range of 18 to 59, the pharmaceutical firm said.

In phase 1 of the trials, they were provided shots of the vaccine at an interval of 14 days. In the second phase, they were administered vaccine shots at 28-day interval. With the trials being largely successful, the company is looking forwards towards the final round of tests that will be conducted in Brazil.

Sinovac has tied up with Instituto Butantan to conduct its phase III trial in Brazil. The latter has also inked an agreement with AstraZeneca - the UK-based drug-maker - which claims to be on track to manufacture the vaccine by September. AstraZeneca would also be conducting the final human trials in the Latin American nation.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 14, 2020 03:24 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).