A Sri Lankan study has found that the Sinopharm vaccine appeared to produce high immunity against the Coronavirus and induce a similar level of antibody response against B.1.617.2 (Delta) and B.1.351 (Beta) variants of the virus as seen following natural infection. 

The Sri Jayewardenepura University research group found that the Sinopharm vaccine produces antibodies in 95% vaccinated people while very good protection against Delta variant.              
                                              
95% of individuals appear to seroconvert following the Sinopharm/BBIBP-CorV vaccine, and the vaccine appears to induce similar levels of ACE2 receptor blocking antibodies and RBD binding antibodies to B.1.617.2 as seen following natural infection.

The Allergy, Immunology and Cell Biology Unit, Department of Immunology Molecular and Molecular Medicine investigated immune responses to the Sinopharm vaccine and found that the vaccine induced antibody responses in over 95% of individuals, similar to levels seen following natural COVID-19 illness.

This vaccine was found very effective for the Delta variant as well. The antibody responses to delta variant and neutralizing antibodies, were similar to levels seen following natural infection, the research group said.

The research team included scientists from the Allergy, Immunology and Cell Biology Unit, Department of Immunology Molecular and Molecular Medicine, including Prof. Neelika Malavige, Dr. Chandima Jeewandara, Colombo Municipality Council and included researchers from University of Oxford including Prof. Graham Ogg and Prof. Alain Townsend. 

The funding for this study was provided by the World Health Organization, UK Medical Research Council and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS) Innovation Fund for Medical Science (CIFMS), China.

The summary of the findings are as follows: 95% of individuals seroconverted following two doses of the Sinopharm/BBIBP-CorV vaccine. 20 to 39 years old had very high seroconversion rates (98.9%), although the seroconversion rates in individuals >60 years of age (93.3%) were lower. The vaccine induced neutralizing antibodies in 81.25% of vaccine recipients and these neutralizing antibody levels were similar to levels seen following natural infection. The antibody levels to delta and beta, were similar to levels following natural infection although the antibody levels were lower for alpha. The vaccine recipients only had a 1.38-fold reduction in antibody titers to delta compared to the Wuhan variant, compared to a 10-fold reduction to beta. The vaccine also induced T cell and memory B cell responses.

The full preprint highlighting the results are available here.