Hungary world leader in number of COVID-19 vaccines authorised

The NYT writes that Hungary is the first country in the European Union that authorised the use of a vaccine by China's state-owned Sinopharm. BBIBP/CorV is an inactivated virus vaccine and has been approved in China, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and it has been cleared for emergency use in Egypt, Hungary and Jordan. 

On 30 December 2020, Sinopharm announced that the vaccine had an efficacy of 79.34 percent, leading the Chinese government to give it approval. The company has yet to publish the detailed results of their Phase 3 trial. The U.A.E. gave it full approval on 9 Dec, saying it had an efficacy rate of 86%. 

The NYT pointed out that vaccines typically require years of research and testing before reaching the clinic, but in 2020, scientists embarked on a race to produce safe and effective coronavirus vaccines in record time.

Researchers are currently testing 67 vaccines in clinical trials on humans, and 20 have reached the final stages of testing. At least 89 preclinical vaccines are under active investigation in animals.

The Gamaleya Research Institute, part of Russia’s Ministry of Health, has created a vaccine with an efficacy rate of 91.4%, according to a 14 December 2020 announcement. 

Gamaleya produced the vaccine, initially called Gam-Covid-Vac, from a combination of two adenoviruses called Ad5 and Ad26. Both kinds have been tested as vaccines over a number of years. By combining them, the Russian researchers hoped to avoid a situation in which the immune system could learn to recognize the vaccine as a foreign object that needed to be destroyed, the NYT said.

Phase 3 trials indicated in mid-November that the vaccine is effective. Based on 20 cases of Covid-19 among the trial participants, Russian scientists estimated that the vaccine demonstrated 92% efficacy. By December, the trial had reached its final total of 78 cases. The efficacy rate was effectively unchanged, at 91.4%. n Dec. 26, the makers of Sputnik V tweeted that they had found that the vaccine had an efficacy of over 90% in people over 60. 

Sputnik V was in early use in Russia, and is in emergency use in Algeria, Argentina, Belarus, Blovia, Guinea, Hungary, Iran, Palstinian Authority, Paraguay, Serbia, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. 

Hungary approved its use on 20 January. The National Medicines and Food Health Institute (OGYEI) has confirmed is efficacy is over 90%.