U.A.E. Giving Third Shot of Sinopharm Vaccine to Some

Shafaq News/ Health authorities in the United Arab Emirates have begun administering a third dose of the Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine to at least some residents, as doctors say the Chinese-made shots in some cases haven’t generated enough protective antibodies.

The U.A.E. has served as one of the primary testing grounds for the vaccine, which is manufactured by a Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical company and is a mainstay of the Gulf monarchy’s rapid immunization campaign. The vaccine is also used in Hungary, Serbia, Pakistan and elsewhere.

G42 Healthcare, the company that coordinated Sinopharm’s Phase 3 clinical trials in the U.A.E. and elsewhere in the Middle East said a “select group of people are being administered a third shot to observe the immune system response” as part of a scientific study.

It declined to say how many people are affected and why, referring reporters to the U.A.E. health authorities, who didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.

Dr. Farida al Hosani, a U.A.E. government spokeswoman on health affairs, was quoted by the Abu Dhabi newspaper The National as saying that “some people” had received a third booster shot. “The number is very minimal” compared to the number who received first and second doses.

Dr. al Hosani couldn’t be reached for comment. The National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority, which oversees the coronavirus response in the U.A.E. and the Abu Dhabi government’s media office didn’t reply to requests for comment. Neither did Sinopharm.

The Wall Street Journal spoke with eight people in Abu Dhabi, capital of the U.A.E., who said they had been called by public health services in recent weeks to come in for a third vaccine and received the injections. All were employees or contractors of U.A.E. government entities.

All eight people also said they were not participating in any scientific study, nor were they tested for antibodies.

“I was not given any reason or explanation when I was called,” one of the people said. “I was just told to show up for a booster shot.”

Dr. Nawal al Kaabi, the principal investigator for the Sinopharm vaccine trial at SEHA, the Abu Dhabi emirate’s healthcare provider, said in a short message reply to a query about the third doses: “It’s not formal! And not done routinely.”

Two doctors in the U.A.E. said some Sinopharm recipients among their patients and colleagues have shown little or no antibody response after the second dose. It isn’t clear to what extent antibody tests measure the immune system’s entire response to the vaccine.

In December, U.A.E. health officials at a closed-door presentation to government companies warned that a third booster shot of the Sinopharm vaccine could be required for those who don’t develop an adequate antibody response from two shots, according to people present.

After a trial involving 31,000 volunteers, the U.A.E. said the Sinopharm vaccine had an overall efficacy of 86% and offered 100% protection against moderate to severe Covid-19 disease. Chinese regulators, using a different definition of clinical disease, put the efficacy rate at 79%.

No detailed, peer-reviewed results from Phase 3 clinical trials of Sinopharm’s vaccine have been published. That contrasts with the peer-reviewed publication of results from studies of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Russia’s Sputnik.

Studies of other Chinese vaccines have shown lower efficacy. One from SinoVac was found to have 50.4% efficacy in trials in Brazil. CanSino Biologic’s vaccine showed 65.7% efficacy in preventing symptomatic Covid-19, according to Pakistan’s health minister, who cited multi-country trial data.

Dr. Sandeep Pargi, a pulmonologist at Dubai’s Aster Hospital, said the use of the third dose of the Sinopharm shot was “not a national policy yet” and was initially being piloted for people with comorbidities or insufficient antibodies from the first two shots.

“Ideally the right time to get the third dose is after six months, where the antibodies which are developed after the vaccination tend to lower their levels a bit,” he said.

Sinopharm, China’s biggest vaccine developer is selling vaccines around the world. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid were among world leaders who have publicly received the Sinopharm shot.

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic said after a visit to Abu Dhabi on Thursday that a Sinopharm manufacturing plant, built jointly with the UAE and China, would start operations in Serbia in October.

In a rare disclosure of the Chinese company’s commercial arrangements, Hungary said Thursday that it was paying about €63—or, $75— for every two doses of Sinopharm. Pfizer, by comparison, bills the U.S. $39 for two doses.

The UAE saw a surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths in January, in part as a result of Dubai remaining open to tourists from the United Kingdom and other countries where new variants of the virus proliferated.

New infections have significantly declined since then, according to official statistics. They are now at about 2,000 daily. The country’s health ministry said this week that seven field hospitals would open later this month across the UAE to deal with coronavirus patients.

Source: Wall Street Journal