Efficacy of Sinopharm vaccines tops 70%, study finds

Domestic drugmaker Sinopharm's two vaccines are both more than 70 percent effective against symptomatic cases of COVID-19, according to a study published on Wednesday on the world's first third-stage clinical trial of inactivated vaccines.

The vaccine, developed by a Beijing unit of Sinopharm's China National Biotech Group, has 78.1 percent efficacy against symptomatic cases of COVID-19, while the vaccine made by the group's unit in Wuhan, Hubei province, has 72.8 percent efficacy, according to the study results released online by The Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study also marks the first time a domestic COVID-19 vaccine maker had release third-stage trial data in a peer-reviewed international journal, the company said in a statement on Thursday.