China’s CanSino single shot vaccine shows 65.7 percent efficacy

A COVID-19 vaccine produced by CanSino Biologics Inc., a Chinese biotech company, is 65.7 percent effective at preventing symptomatic coronavirus cases, according to a multi-nation study.

Faisal Sultan, a special assistant to Pakistan’s prime minister, posted about the results of the study on Twitter Monday, adding that the vaccine had been found to be 90.98 percent effective at preventing “severe” cases of the disease.

In the Pakistani subset, efficacy at preventing symptomatic cases is 74.8% & 100% at preventing severe disease.

The IDMC didn’t report any serious safety concerns. Data incld 30,000 participants & 101 virologically confmd COVID cases

Well done Pak team for conducting this trial

— Faisal Sultan (@fslsltn) February 8, 2021

CanSino’s vaccine is the third vaccine candidate manufactured by Chinese firms to hit the market; two others were previously released by Sinovac and Sinopharm, and are both approved for use in numerous countries.

News of CanSino’s efficacy rate comes just days after it was announced that the company had provided part of its paperwork required for approval of its vaccine candidate in Mexico, where SinoVac has also applied for approval for general use.

China’s government announced a plan last week that would see the country provide 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries around the world, part of a plan to strengthen Beijing’s diplomatic ties.