Around 1500 Filipinos out of more than 30,000 volunteers have participated in the Phase-III clinical trial of Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccine in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since June 23, Chinese Ambassador to Manila Huang Xilian disclosed on Wednesday.
In a statement, Huang said the UAE trial is the world's first Phase-III clinical trial of the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) vaccine. Sinopharm, the developer of the said vaccine, has also launched Phase-III trials in several other countries like Bahrain, Argentina, Peru, and Morocco.
Overall, Huang said the worldwide Phase III trials have involved more than 50,000 volunteers from 115 countries with leading progress in all aspects.
“Hundreds of thousands of people have received vaccinations of Sinopharm’s vaccine since China launched emergency use of COVID-19 vaccines on July 22 with no cases of severe adverse effects or infection,” the envoy was quoted as saying in a statement released by the Chinese Embassy.
The top Chinese diplomat in Manila expressed optimism that the vaccine is likely to be on the market by the end of December while the company has built two high-level biosafety production facilities in Beijing and Wuhan with an estimated annual production capacity of 300 million doses.
With the expansion of production capacity, he said the annual output could reach 800 million to 1 billion doses in the future.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded 34 vaccine candidates worldwide that are undergoing clinical evaluation. Four of the vaccine prospects are from China, namely two from Sinopharm, one from Sinovac Biotech, and one from CanSino Biological.