Turkey announces vaccination plan for Chinese CoronaVac

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s health minister has announced a vaccination plan starting with an experimental “inactivated vaccine” later this month to combat the COVID-19 pandemic amid a surge in infections and deaths.

Fahrettin Koca had previously announced an agreement with Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech for 50 million doses of CoronaVac, which is currently in Phase 3 trials. Koca said in a statement late Wednesday that the first shipment of the inactivated vaccine will arrive in Turkey after Dec. 11.

Inactivated vaccines are made by growing the whole virus in a lab and then killing it. Safely brewing and then killing the virus can take longer than newer technologies. But inactivated vaccines give the body a sneak peek at the germ itself rather than just the single spike protein, which mediates the entry of the coronavirus.

The minister said early use authorization would be granted after Turkish labs confirm vaccine safety and initial results from Phase 3 trials are assessed.

“If developments continue positively as we expect, Turkey would be among the first countries in the world to begin vaccinations in the early phase,” Koca said.

In November, The Lancet published a study about the efficacy of Sinovac’s vaccine candidate based on initial Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials. The study said the efficacy was determined to be moderate, and that the vaccine produced lower levels of antibodies than those that have been found in recovered COVID-19 patients.

“The protective efficacy of CoronaVac remains to be determined,” the study said.

Candidates from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have said that they have more than 90% efficacy rates. The U.K.’s AstraZeneca have an efficacy rate of 70-90%, again based on limited clinical trials.

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