Indonesia approves Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use
After Sinovac Biotech and AstraZeneca, Sinopharm is the third company to have its vaccine approved by Indonesia, which is seeking to inoculate 181.5 million people by January 2022.

After Sinovac Biotech and AstraZeneca, Sinopharm is the third company to have its vaccine approved by Indonesia, which is seeking to inoculate 181.5 million people by January 2022.
SciClone said it is using an inactivated Covid-19 vaccine in its trial but did not specify which one. Three coronavirus vaccines approved in China use inactivated virus and have been developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) and Sinovac Biotech.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on Thursday gave nod to the emergency use of the inactivated vaccine produced by Sinovac Biotech, two days after a panel of experts recommended the vaccine to the authorities.
The COVAX scheme - led by the World Health Organization and GAVI vaccine alliance - is due to start rolling out vaccines to poor and middle-income countries in February, with 2 of 3 billion doses expected to be delivered this year.
Sao Paulo governor Joao Doria said the federal government has agreed to buy 46 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine and that national vaccination could begin in January 2021.
Sinovac Biotech Ltd in a letter on September 24 said the trial would be delayed unless the government provided funds, although the company was supposed to bear the costs as per an agreement, The Daily Star reported.
High hopes hang on the small vials of liquid on show at a Beijing trade fair this week -- vaccine candidates produced by Chinese companies Sinovac Biotech and Sinopharm.
China National Biotec Group (CNBG), a unit of state-owned pharmaceutical giant China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm), also said it had obtained emergency use approval for a coronavirus vaccine candidate in social media platform WeChat last Sunday.
The same day Oxford released its findings from phase I/II trial of its vaccine, CanSino Biologics released its report from a similar-phase trial of a non-replicating viral vector vaccine. CanSino is not the lone contender from China.
The coronavirus vaccine, developed by private Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac, is the third in the world to enter Phase 3 trials, or large-scale testing on humans -- the last step before regulatory approval.
Sinovac Biotech, which is conducting one of the four clinical trials that have been authorised in China, has claimed great progress in its research and promising results among monkeys.