Nepal Government approves Chinese Covid vaccine

Nepal government on Wednesday granted emergency use approval to a Covid-19 vaccine developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products Co Ltd. (BIBP) in China under Sinopharm.

By providing the emergency use authorisation, the department paves the way to bring Shinopharm’s vaccine in Nepal. China has decided to provide 500,000 doses of BBIBP-CorV vaccine, developed by Sinopharm, under grant assistance.

Of the three applications—two from India and one from China’s Shinopharm—the department on January 15 had given emergency use authorisation to only Covishield vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, which is produced in India by the Serum Institute of India. The department had demanded necessary documents with Sinopharm and Bharat Biotech.

On 30 December 2020, Sinopharm announced the vaccine’s efficacy was 79.34 per cent, which was lower than the 86 per cent announced by the United Arab Emirates on December 9. The UAE had based its results on an interim analysis of Phase III trials conducted from July.

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