China’s Fosun Pharma to import 100 million BioNTech vaccine doses

A Chinese pharmaceutical company said
Wednesday it had agreed to buy at least 100 million doses of the coronavirus
vaccine from German company BioNTech, subject to Beijing approving its use.

China has been rapidly developing its own Covid-19 vaccine candidates and
ramping up production facilities, but local firms have also been partnering
with foreign developers to supply the world’s most populous country.

Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group said its subsidiary had entered into an
agreement with the German firm aimed at ensuring “an adequate supply” of
vaccines in China, adding it will make an initial payment of 125 million
euros ($152 million) before year-end for 50 million doses.

Fosun Pharma said it would pay the remaining 125 million euros after
receiving authorisation to commercialise the German vaccine in mainland
China.

The agreement did not detail when the remaining 50 million doses would
arrive.

Pfizer and BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine has already been approved for emergency
use in countries such as the US, the UK and Singapore.

Its vaccine is based on cutting-edge technology that uses synthetic
versions of molecules called messenger RNA to hack into human cells, and
effectively turn them into vaccine-making factories.

Beijing has five vaccines in the final stages of development, saying at
least a million people were to receive a jab after vaccine candidates were
approved for emergency use.

China has been inking agreements to supply millions of doses of Chinese-
made vaccines to other countries after largely bringing the outbreak under
control at home.

On Tuesday, health officials in one county of northern Heilongjiang
province — where officials have been battling a small number of cases —
said they would start offering Covid-19 vaccine doses to the general public.

The jabs wil cost 420 yuan ($64), but the statement did not clarify which
vaccine was being offered.

Three of China’s five vaccine products that are in the final stages of
development use an inactivated form of the novel coronavirus to boost
immunity.

Fosun Pharma is majority-owned by Fosun International, a Chinese
conglomerate that owns France-based resort giant Club Med and travel firm
Thomas Cook.

AFP