China COVID-19 Vaccine Trial Halted In Brazil After Reports Of Patient’s Death | Zero Hedge
We haven’t heard too many negative reports about China’s full-court press for a COVID-19 vaccine, which involves at least half a dozen standalone projects that have reached the latest stages of testing. But just as trials for the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine project, and other western projects, have been halted, sometimes for weeks at a time, so now too are some Chinese projects hitting a wall.
It just goes to show that while Beijing has grown adept at using its economic muscle to browbeat its geopolitical rivals/partners into acquiescence, dealing with foreign regulators who must inevitably scrutinize Chinese vaccines (as trials of Chinese-developed vaccines are underway around the world) can have its limits, as Brazil has showed us today.
On Tuesday morning in Asia (late Monday in Brazil), Bloomberg reported that a final-stage trial of one of the Chinese “frontrunners” had been halted by Brazilian regulators due to a “serious adverse event”. The incident marks, as Bloomberg points out, “the first time that any of the Asian nation’s rapidaly developed COVID-19 shots have met with such a setback.”
The order impacts Sinovac’s vaccine candidate, “Coronavac”. The halt began on Oct. 29, nearly two weeks ago, after a subject became ill. Like in the west, details about the decision were scant, and Brazilian officials provided little insight into the nature of the problem.
