The sudden resignation of a number of top executives of Chinese pharmaceutical companies suggested that the efficacy of the domestic developed COVID 19 vaccines could have been exaggerated.
On January 13, Zhong Shanshan, CEO of Chinese Wantai Biosciences and the richest man in China and Asia, abruptly resigned citing “personal reasons.” Before Zhong’s resignation, Wantai was collaborating with Xiamen University and the University of Hong Kong to develop a nasal spray COVID vaccine. On January 6, Wantai released a statement stating that the company is uncertain as to the trial results from phase one through phase three and is unable to project when the product will be available for sale.
On January 12, Li Zhiming, chairman of the board and Li Hui, board member of pharmaceutical company Sinopharm Holdings also resigned for “personal reasons.” Sinopharm Group is a state-owned pharmaceutical company in China. On December 31, 2020, it just received the official approval to have a limited launch of its COVID vaccine, but a recent news report suggested that among the SOE expatriates deployed to countries including Serbia and Angola, about three hundred of them still contracted COVID 19 even after they received Sinopharm vaccine.
Meanwhile, according to the data the Brazilian Research Institute released on January 12, the China developed Sinovac vaccine efficacy in clinical trial phase three was 50.4 percent, down from 78 percent that the Brazil’s Butantan Institute reported one week ago. Last December, China’s official media refused to disclose the COVID vaccine trial results in Brazil. It published the results from Turkey instead and claimed that it was 91.25 effective. However, the data from Indonesia showed the number was only 65.3 percent.
Source:
1. Epoch Times, January 14, 2021
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/21/1/14/n12688272.htm
2. Radio Free Asia, January 13, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/vaccine-01132021064840.html