Foreign news
Sinovac launches Phase 3 trial for COVID-19 vaccine in Indonesia, reports Phase 2 details
China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd launched a late-stage human trial on Tuesday that will involve as many as 1,620 patients in Indonesia for a COVID-19 vaccine candidate that it is developing with Indonesian state-owned peer Bio Farma.
Sinovac is testing its vaccine abroad because there are too few new infection cases in China, making it no longer a satisfactory site for late-stage trials.
Separately, Sinovac released details on Monday from a mid-stage, or Phase 2, study in which it said the vaccine candidate appeared to be safe and induced detectable antibody-based immune responses in subjects.
The candidate, known as CoronaVac, is among a few potential vaccines that have entered late-stage trials for a large-scale study to gather proof of efficacy for regulatory approval.
CoronaVac is already undergoing a late-stage trial in Brazil and Sinovac expects to also test it in Bangladesh.
Sinovac’s Indonesia trial comes as Southeast Asia’s most populous country grapples with spiking infection numbers, with over 127,000 cases recorded as of Tuesday. The trial has so far recruited 1,215 people and will last six months.
“The threat of COVID-19 will not subside until a vaccine is given to all the people,” said Indonesian President Joko Widodo at a ceremony to launch the trial in Bandung, West Java. “Hopefully in January, we can produce and vaccinate everyone in the country.”
In addition to Bio Farma and Sinovac, private Indonesian firm Kalbe Farma and South Korea’s Genexine are cooperating to produce a separate vaccine. It is yet unclear how many doses these partnerships will produce and by when.
In Sinovac’s mid-stage trial involving 600 participants in China, the rate of fever in patients was relatively lower than other COVID-19 candidates including one from AstraZeneca, the study showed ahead of peer review.
Mid-stage trials usually test a candidate’s safety and ability to trigger an immune response in a relatively small number of people before it enters late-stage tests.
The study noted that the process to make the vaccines used in the Phase 2 trial was more optimized than in Phase 1, which produced more immunogens and triggered better immune responses.
Vaccines used in the late-stage trials will be made using the optimized process, a Sinovac spokesman said.
The Phase 2 results only included antibody-based immunity, the researchers said, adding that the candidate was being evaluated for other important components of the immune system
Foreign news
Finland-Nigeria future cooperation has a brighter prospect-envoy
Mrs Sanna Selin, the new Finnish Ambassador to Nigeria, says Nigeria and Finland have a brighter future together through bilateral relations.
The envoy said this during her Finland’s 107 years National Day celebration, which was held on Wednesday night in Abuja.
She said that to promote stronger cooperation, both countries needed to learn from each other to build trust
.
According to Selin, the fact that Nigeria and Finland differ in many ways has not and will not prevent both nations from together finding mutual and beneficial solutions to shared challenges.
“The key is to better understand each other and each others’ needs by working tirelessly together to learn from one another and build trust.
“Nigeria and Finland share many common values. We work closely together in multilateral fora for a better world.
“As an Ambassador of Finland to Nigeria, I see our future brighter together”, she said.
Speaking on the Ukraine-Russian war, she said that the long-term aim for the Finnish Foreign Policy had been to promote peace, security, and sustainable development.
She said that for Finland, it was self-evident that supporting Ukraine is the obligation at the current war.
“My grandparents were the generation fighting for the independence and sovereignty of Finland. I am deeply grateful for their sacrifice.
“Ukraine is fighting, not only for its survival, but also defending the rules-based international order.
“From our own historical experience and fight for independence, we know what Ukraine is going through”, she said.
According to Selin, before independence from the Russian empire, all Finnish men and women gained full political rights to be voted and elected.
She said women used their political influence to demand for better school and healthcare for the Finnish people.
“Since 2018, the World Happiness Report has ranked Finland as the happiest country in the world.
“Relevant factors contributing to happiness seem to be Finland’s social safety net combined with personal freedom and a good work-life balance,’” she said.
NAN
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