Benzinga | Sep 24, 2021 09:16AM EDT

Sinovac's COVID-19 Vaccine Shows Efficacy, But Lags Rivals In Malaysian Study: Reuters

* According to a real-world study from Malaysia, Sinovac Biotech Ltd's (NASDAQ:SVA) COVID-19 vaccine, CoronaVac, showed effectiveness against serious illness.

* However, shots from Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) / BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX) and AstraZeneca plc (NASDAQ:AZN) demonstrated better protection rates, reported Reuters.

* The latest data boosts Sinovac's COVID-19 vaccine that has been under scrutiny over its effectiveness following reports of infections among fully immunized healthcare workers with the Sinovac shot in Indonesia and Thailand.

* The study, conducted by the Malaysian government, found that 0.011% of about 7.2 million recipients of the Sinovac shot required treatment in intensive care units (ICU) for COVID-19 infections.

* Whereas 0.002% of about 6.5 million recipients of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and 0.001% of 744,958 recipients of the AstraZeneca shot needed ICU treatment for COVID-19 infections.

* Kalaiarasu Peariasamy, a director at the Institute for Clinical Research, said "the breakthrough rate for intensive care unit admission is extremely low," adding that overall ICU admissions among fully vaccinated individuals stood at 0.0066%.

* The mortality rate of the fully vaccinated people was also low at 0.01%, and the majority of them were either above 60 years of age or with comorbidities.

* Earlier this month, Sinovac announced new data suggesting that the third dose of CoronaVac can induce a better neutralization breadth to variants of concern, including the Delta variant.

* Price Action: SVA stock closed at $6.47 on Thursday.