WHO Endorses China’s Sinovac Coronavirus Vaccine

The World Health Organization on Tuesday gave its endorsement to a second Chinese coronavirus vaccine.

According to WHO, the vaccine developed by China's Sinovac is over 51% effective at preventing symptomatic disease. It is 100% effective at preventing hospitalization and severe disease.

The clinical trials included few adults over the age of 60, so efficacy in that age group could not be evaluated. However, WHO declined to set an age limit for the vaccine.

"There is no reason to believe that the vaccine has a different safety profile in older and younger populations," the group said in a press release. "WHO recommends that countries using the vaccine in older age groups conduct safety and effectiveness monitoring to verify the expected impact and contribute to making the recommendation more robust for all countries."

The move could lead to the vaccine being included in the COVAX program, the WHO-led initiative to provide equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

"The world desperately needs multiple COVID-19 vaccines to address the huge access inequity across the globe," Mariângela Simão, WHO assistant director-general for access to health products, said in a statement.

WHO has validated seven coronavirus vaccines for emergency use listing, including another from China that is reportedly 79% effective at preventing symptomatic disease and hospitalization.

Compared to other vaccines endorsed by WHO, the two vaccines from China had limited public data. WHO experts previously said that some quality data on the risk of serious adverse effects for the Sinovac vaccine was lacking.