Beijing, Dec 31 (IANS): China on Thursday said it had granted conditional marketing authorisation for a Covid-19 vaccine developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm).

The vaccine will be provided free to the national inoculation programme, the South China Morning Post reported, citing Chinese officials.

China earlier granted emergency use authorisation of the vaccine for high risk groups.

"Yesterday, to be exact, last night, we have approved the vaccine by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products under China National Pharmaceutical Group in accordance with the law," Chen Shifei, Deputy Head of the National Medical Products Administration, was quoted as saying.

The vaccine showed 79.34 per cent efficacy against Covid-19, according to the interim results of the phase-3 clinical trials.

After a two-dose inoculation procedure, the vaccine receivers all produced high titers of antibodies, and the seroconversion rate of neutralising antibodies reached 99.52 per cent, Xinhua news agency reported.

The vaccine has been developed by Sinopharm subsidiary the Beijing Institute of Biological Products.