Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech Ltd (Sinovac) (NasdaqGS:SVA) COVID-19 vaccine trials has reported that Brazil has gathered enough infection data from a late-stage trial of the experimental COVID-19 and expects to have interim results on its efficiency in early December 2020, Reuters news agency reported on Tuesday.

According to Dimas Covas, director of Butantan biomedical research institute that is running the late-stage trial of the Sinovac vaccine in Brazil, the country now has 74 confirmed cases among its trial participants, above the 61 initial milestone set for interim efficiency analysis.

Covas said an independent committee is likely to release the efficiency results in the first week of December based on its analysis of the data. He added that Brazil's health ministry now has all the information needed to include Coronavac in the national programme, while São Paulo Health Secretary Jean Gorinchteyn expected Brazil's regulator to approve the use of the Sinovac vaccine, CoronaVac, by January 2021.

João Gabbardo, head of the Sao Paulo's COVID-19 contingency committee, has said that he expects China's health regulator to approve Sinovac's CoronaVac in December, which could hasten approval in Brazil.

Brazil's health ministry had said on 22 November 2020 it planned to sign non-binding letters of intent to buy vaccines from Pfizer Inc, India's Bharat Biotech, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Moderna Inc and Janssen, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, but made no mention of Sinovac's candidate.