Peru suspends trials of Sinopharm vaccine (Video of December 2020) 0:27
(CNN Spanish) -
A volunteer who was participating in the phase 3 clinical trial of the coronavirus vaccine from the Chinese laboratory Sinopharm in Peru died of covid-19 pneumonia.
The Peruvian University Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) reported this Tuesday in a statement that it is a woman who received a placebo, not the vaccine.
According to the institution, the participant received treatment from the beginning of the disease.
She was hospitalized on mechanical ventilation and was "fighting for her life" for more than a week, they added.
In its statement, the UPCH stated that it is working together with the study's security and surveillance team and with regulatory entities in order to clarify the sequence of events that led to the woman's death.
They will prepare reports to present to ethical and regulatory bodies while they will continue the usual activities in the clinical study, they clarified.
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Speaking to Canal N, Germán Málaga, professor of medicine at the university and principal investigator of the clinical trial of the doses, said that the woman suffered from diabetes and was taking medication for this disease.
He clarified that the institution repeatedly exhorted volunteers to take self-care measures since they are participating in a study in which, for the moment, the efficacy of the vaccine is unknown.
Malaga reported that 12,000 people received the 2 doses (vaccine and placebo) and are now under observation.
The researcher calculates that "in a few weeks" they will be able to obtain the efficacy of the antigen.
In December 2020, the Peruvian Ministry of Health temporarily suspended Sinopharm's clinical trials, although a few days later it authorized them to resume as the situation had cleared up.
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As of Tuesday, the health portfolio confirmed 1,107,239 cases of covid-19 and 40,107 deaths associated with the disease.