China prepares for large-scale production of COVID-19 vaccines

Chinese government officials have urged vaccine production companies to accelerate the research and development of COVID-19 vaccines, and set up a full industrial chain to prepare for large-scale production, once a vaccine is approved by the country’s medicine regulator.

Wang Jiangping, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, on Tuesday visited two companies currently working on COVID-19 vaccine development in Beijing, Sinovac Research and Development Company and Beijing Biological Products Institute.

Sinovac last month revealed early data on its vaccine, CoronaVac, which shows it generated an immune response with minimal side effects, suggesting it might be able to protect people against COVID-19.

The Sinovac vaccine induced neutralizing antibodies in “above 90 percent” of people tested 14 days after receiving two vaccine injections, two weeks apart, according to its statement.

The Beijing Biological Products Institute, affiliated with the China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm), announced in late June that it had achieved positive results for a COVID-19 vaccine candidate it had developed.

All 1,120 volunteers in the first and second phase clinical trials successfully produced high-titer antibodies against COVID-19 after accepting two doses of the vaccine, the company said.

It also set up a high-level vaccine production plant in April, with an annual production capacity of 120 million doses. It is the biggest production plant for inactivated COVID-19 vaccines in the world.

China is currently developing COVID-19 vaccines in five categories – inactivated vaccines, recombinant protein vaccines, live attenuated influenza vaccines, adenovirus vaccines and nucleic acid-based vaccines.