Peru Delays Clinical Trials Of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 Vaccine

Ciftis exhibition booth staff in Beijing, Friday (4/9), showing two COVID-19 vaccine candidates made by Sinopharm and Sinovac (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Peru has postponed clinical trials of the COVID-19 vaccine made by Sinopharm China because of a "serious bad incident", which happened to one of the volunteers, the Peruvian government said on Saturday local time.

The Health Ministry said the incident was "being investigated to determine if it is related to the vaccine or if there is some other explanation."

Sinopharm Group, which is conducting clinical trials in Peru involving about 12,000 volunteers, is close to completing its first phase of the trial in the next few days.

So far about 36,544 people in Peru have died from the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The decision to suspend clinical trials is a safety measure that is considered in the clinical trial regime as well as the protocol used to protect the health of study subjects," said a Ministry of Health statement.

The head of research at Cayetano Heredia University, German Malaga, who immediately took part in the research, said a volunteer had experienced muscle weakness in his leg, among other symptoms.