The British drug-maker, AstraZeneca signed an exclusive deal with Beijing based Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products Co., Ltd to manufacture a potential COVID-19 vaccine in mainland China.
Shenzhen Kangtai is considered as one of the leading Chinese vaccine manufacturers. Under the agreement, Shenzhen Kangtai will ensure that it has an annual manufacturing capacity of at least 100 million doses by the end of this year and at least 200 million doses at the end of the next year 2021, of the experimental shot AZD1222 which AstraZeneca has co-developed with Oxford University researchers.
Till date, AstraZeneca has signed vaccine manufacturing agreements with the United States, South Korea, Brazil and Britain. These deals are to produce more than 2 billion vaccine doses. Multiple Chinese companies are also developing their own COVID-19 vaccine candidates. These includes Sinovac Biotech, CanSino Biologics and Sinopharm. On June 15, Sinovac Biotech announced positive results from Phase 1 and 2 of Corona vaccine trial. Similarly, CanSino Biologics also reported positive test results from Phase 2 trial of the vaccine, Ad5-nCOV.
Other collaborations between Chinese and international vaccine-makers include Germany’s BioNTech’s partnership with China’s Fosun and Inovio Pharma’s pact with Beijing based Advaccine Biotechnology. Apart from China, other COVID-19 vaccine programs that seem to be at the forefront are US-based companies Pfizer, Novavax and Moderna. Novavax reported positive test results from Stage 1 and 2 trials of the vaccine NVX-C0V2373 while Moderna conducted its Phase 3 human trial of its vaccine on 30,000 volunteers this week. Apart from the above three companies, the US Government is also funding AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Sanofi. This project aims to provide over 300 million doses of COVID vaccine distributed in the U.S. by early 2021.
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