(Sharecast News) - Chinese Covid-19 vaccine developer Sinopharm said it will seek approval from regulators after final stage trials showed a 79% efficacy rate.
Trial results cleared the minimum requirements from the Chinese regulators. The efficacy is still below the western companies' vaccine results which achieved higher than 90% in the final trials.
The Chinese vaccine has already been approved by Bahrain regulators and United Arab Emirates officials after the Gulf states separately said the vaccine had an 86% efficacy rate, although there has been no explanation of the difference between countries in reported rates.
It is also unclear if it will receive the international go-ahead as experts warn of lack of transparency over data and regulatory approval for Chinese vaccines, according to multiple media reports.
China's foreign ministry on Monday defended the vaccine programmes and reiterated plans to offer the jabs as a "global public good" once development had concluded.
More than 1m people have already received the jab within China as part of an emergency use programme that officials said would be expanded this winter.
This vaccine could be particularly successful in multiple countries in the developing world that cannot obtain the western companies' vaccines such as Moderna, BioNTech/Pfizer and Oxford/AstraZeneca and may have to rely on cheaper options.