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Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac has secured a cash injection of $ 515 million as one of the country’s leading vaccine hopefuls looks to ramp up production and distribution of its Covid-19 vaccine once stage testing concludes. final.
Sino Biopharmaceutical, a Hong Kong-listed generic drug group, said on Monday that it had acquired a 15 percent stake in Sinovac Life Sciences, the Sinovac subsidiary that has developed a Covid-19 vaccine that is undergoing extensive testing. stopover in Brazil, Pakistan. Indonesia and Chile.
The Sinovac vaccine, along with two other candidates developed by the state group Sinopharm, is one of the pioneers in China to be sold around the world.
Yin Weidong, CEO of Sinovac, said the investment would allow the group to “improve our capabilities to sell vaccines [and] expand into Asian markets ”.
The company expects to be able to manufacture 300 million doses of the vaccine each year, but capacity will double with the construction of a second production plant by the end of 2020.
The funding announcement comes after separate efforts by major Western vaccine makers Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna, and AstraZeneca-Oxford increased pressure on Chinese pharmaceutical groups, which have pledged to distribute their vaccines throughout the developing world. as part of a charm offensive by Beijing.
Inactivated vaccines from China are more easily distributed than those developed by Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna, which must be transported at minus 70 ° C and minus 20 ° C respectively.
Sinovac has already made significant shipments abroad in preparation for the announcement of phase 3 results, as well as distributing its vaccine within China as part of a large-scale emergency use program. Sino shares rose nearly 5 percent in afternoon trading.
Antara, Indonesia’s state news agency, reported that 1.2 million doses were delivered to Jakarta on Sunday. “We also continue working on [another] 1.8 million doses of the vaccine due to arrive in early January 2021, ”said Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
Mr. Widodo added that the Indonesian Food and Drug Administration was working on approvals for the vaccine to be distributed.
“We are very grateful that the vaccine is now available,” he said.
Wang Junzhi, one of the top advisers to a Chinese State Council working group on vaccines, said on Friday that the country would make “a big announcement” on vaccines in the coming weeks, adding that 600 million doses of Inactivated vaccine would be “ready” by the end of the year.
Additional information from Xueqiao Wang in Shanghai
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