China, where the epidemic first appeared just a year ago, largely contained the virus in the spring, if we are to believe the official death toll of 4,634 deaths, the latest in May. The country has since launched intense research on several potential vaccines, with President Xi Jinping promising to make them “a global public good”.
In this context, the Chinese group Sino Biopharmaceutical, listed in Hong Kong, announced an investment of 515 million dollars in the Sinovac vaccine, called CoronaVac. Sinovac explained that this funding would be used to expand research and production capacity for the vaccine. The private group plans to reach a production capacity of 600 million units by the end of the year. The vaccine is still in phase 3 clinical trials in several countries, including Brazil. The Chinese regulator has not yet given the green light to the marketing of the product.
The product “has reached a very important milestone in its clinical trials in Asia and Latin America,” Sinovac boss Yin Weidong said in a statement Monday. In exchange for its investment, Sino Biopharmaceutical, headquartered in Beijing, will receive 15% of the capital of a subsidiary of Sinovac, Sinovac Life Sciences. Beijing has already started administering vaccines to certain priority populations, including healthcare workers, diplomats, employees or students leaving for abroad.
Nearly one million people have already been inoculated with another experimental Chinese vaccine produced by competitor Sinopharm, the group announced last month. The United Kingdom last week became the first Western country to give the green light to the general distribution of a vaccine, in this case the product developed by the American Pfizer and the German BioNTech.
The vaccination is due to start on Tuesday. Russia has for its part started to vaccinate certain categories of the population with its Sputnik V vaccine.
–
