The booster dose of the Coronavirus vaccine developed by the Chinese manufacturer, Sinopharm, does not offer significant protection against the Omicron variant, a new study has revealed.
The study was conducted by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in collaboration with a Shanghai-based laboratory specializing in respiratory infectious diseases. The study has not been peer-reviewed yet.
During the study, the researchers compared the neutralizing activities of Sinopharm’s booster dose against both the original strain of Coronavirus and Omicron variant.
They found that the third dose had significant neutralizing activity against the original strain of Coronavirus that emerged from Wuhan in December 2019. However, the neutralizing activity of the vaccine’s third jab decreased by 20 times against the Omicron strain.
It probably happened because Sinopharm’s vaccine is based on the original strain of the Coronavirus and it doesn’t recognize the Omicron variant since it is the most mutated version of the virus and has over 50 mutations, of which more than 30 are on the spike protein.
Last week, another study conducted by the Swiss antibody therapeutics company, Humabs BioMed, had revealed that Sinopharm does not offer any protection against Omicron strain. In addition to Sinopharm, the researchers also analyzed J&J and Sputnik V, concluding that both of these vaccines are ineffective against Omicron as well.
Meanwhile, Sinopharm has not issued an official statement on any of the studies yet.
It is also worth mentioning here that Pakistan has vaccinated most of its vaccine-eligible population with COVID-19 vaccines developed by Chinese manufacturers Sinopharm, Sinovac, and CanSinoBIO. Other vaccines that have been used in the ongoing countrywide vaccination campaign are Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Sputnik V.
