Sinovac plans to have a new version of its omicron vaccine in three months

The Chinese company Sinovac plans to have ready “in three months” a new version of its vaccine against covid-19 (Coronavac) adapted to the ómicron variant, which has put the world on alert for its high number of mutations. This was announced by the vice president of Sinovac, Yaling Hu, at a symposium organized by the Butantan Institute of Sao Paulo, an entity with which she allied to produce Coronavac in Brazilian territory.” The development of the vaccine against the omicron strain will be completed in three months, with a production capacity of between “1,000 million and 1,500 million doses per year,” said Yaling Hu, who is also part of the specialist group of the World Health Organization (WHO). That process to adapt the drug to the new variant, initially detected in South Africa last November and of which little is known, has already begun and includes a plan to evaluate its effectiveness through laboratory experiments and then in humans of different ages, according to the executive. In the first evaluation we want to isolate the virus and do a neutralizing antibody test including different immunization schedules,” he explained in his lecture, which he delivered in Chinese, was translated into English and was broadcast in Portuguese through the official channels of Butantan.According to data from Butantan, one of the most prestigious medical research institutions in Brazil, Coronavac “has been used in 45 countries” since the beginning of the pandemic, which has already caused more than 5.2 million deaths worldwide. With more than 7.9 billion doses of the different immunizers applied worldwide, Coronavac represents “25% of the world’s production”, answering for “2,000 million” punctures. The Chinese formula was the most used at the start of the vaccination campaign in Brazil, which began on January 17 and its progress has allowed a drastic decrease in both the number of infections and deaths in the South American country. Even so, Brazil is one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus, along with the United States and India, accounting for 22.1 million cases and nearly 616,000 deaths linked to the disease so far. In addition, six cases of the ómicron variant have been recorded to date: three in Sao Paulo, which were the first in Latin America; two in the Federal District of Brasilia and another in Rio Grande do Sul, a state bordering Uruguay and Argentina.

Original source in Spanish