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A TOP executive at a Chinese company developing a Covid-19 vaccine has blamed “US smears and hostility” for delaying progress.
China National Biotec Group’s Zhang Yuntao said that China’s very success in suppressing coronavirus was now a problem in staging phase-three trials since there are not enough local transmissions within the country for it to do so. Instead it is conducting trials involving over 40,000 volunteers abroad.
“Our data is recognised and approved to allow clinical trials directly in foreign countries,” Mr Zhang told the South China Morning Post. But “it has been very difficult to develop the vaccines, withstanding hostile foreign relations and smearing by the US.”
Mr Zhang said approval had been granted to conduct phase-three trials in Australia — but this was then withdrawn for “political reasons.”
Washington claims that China — which leads the global race for a vaccine with four of the 10 candidates undergoing final-stage trials being Chinese — is trying to steal its own vaccine research, a charge Beijing denies.
