Chinese Covid-19 vaccine Trial Halted In Brazil

The Brazilian clinical trial for a Chinese Covid-19 vaccine has been suspended after health authorities reported a “severe adverse” incident.

The Brazilian health regulator Anvisa, ruled to interrupt the clinical trial of the CoronaVac vaccine after the incident which took place on 29 October, but did not give further details.

Dimas Covas, the head of Butantan, the medical research institute conducting the Brazilian trial, told local media that the trial’s suspension was related to a death, but insisted it was not related to the vaccine.

Sinovac said on Tuesday that it was communicating with Brazil about the reported incident.

The CoronaVac vaccine, developed by the Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech, is one of several in final-stage testing globally. Late-stage trials for the vaccine are also being conducted in Indonesia and Turkey.

However, Sinovac says it is “confident in the safety of the vaccine stating the firm has already been using it to immunize thousands of people at home in an emergency use programme.

According to reports, Brazil has been one of the countries worst affected by coronavirus, recording more than 5.6m confirmed cases.