Sinovac claims progress with early coronavirus vaccine study

Sinovac, a Beijing-based drugmaker, said on Saturday a vaccine it's developing for the new coronavirus spurred immune responses in healthy adults given the shot in an early-stage study, a hint that the experimental candidate could be working as intended. The company offered little supporting data for its claim, indicating only that neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 were found in more than 90% of study participants tested two weeks after inoculation. Importantly, no serious side effects occurred among the more than 700 volunteers enrolled in the trial, according to Sinovac. Results from the Phase 1/2 study, which Sinovac conducted in the Jiangsu province of China, will be published in a medical journal, the company said. So far, only one company — China's CanSino Biologics — has detailed coronavirus vaccine study data in an academic publication.