Chinese vaccine scheduled to go to market in December
August 25, 2020 Category Health, Weekly
An inactivated Covid-19 vaccine developed by the China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) will likely come on the market by the end of December, at a price of less than CNY1,000 for two shots. The marketing review procedure will start after overseas phase III clinical trials are completed, Chairman Liu Jingzhen said. Not all 1.4 billion Chinese people need to be vaccinated, Liu added, suggesting that students and those working in cities should take the injections, while people who live in rural areas with comparatively smaller populations do not have to. Sinopharm started to offer free voluntary injections to front-line medical workers in some state-owned hospitals on an urgent basis in late July. Some employees of SOEs preparing to go abroad were also offered Sinopharm’s inactivated vaccine for urgent use as early as June. Getting vaccinated would be free for Chinese citizens if the vaccine is included in the national immunization program, which covers 14 injections against 15 diseases like polio and hepatitis B. A workshop in Beijing able to produce 120 million doses per year has passed biological safety inspection from the related authorities and is ready for production. Another workshop of Sinopharm in Wuhan is able to produce 100 million doses per year.
The China National Biotec Group (CNBG) announced it will start its Phase Ⅲ clinical trials of Covid-19 vaccines in Peru and Morocco, after obtaining certificates to launch trials in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain. Another vaccine maker, CanSino Biologics, has reportedly reached a deal with the Mexican government.
Meanwhile, the American Chamber of Commerce received permission to fly business executives to China on a chartered flight on September 12, but tight restrictions remain on those allowed to re-enter China. Almost 200 people signed up for a San Francisco to Beijing charter flight. The Chamber said that only those who were employed by member companies who had received a letter of invitation, known as a PU letter, would be allowed on the flight. They also must obtain a valid re-entry visa. Family members will be permitted to travel with the employee, but all passengers will be required to pass a Covid-19 test before boarding and must enter quarantine upon arrival. The price of the flight operated by United Airlines is expected to be “competitive with current commercial rates”, with economy class seats starting at USD4,300 and business class seats starting at USD10,000. AmCham China estimates that between 5,000 and 10,000 members of the U.S. business community are currently stuck overseas, while the European Chamber’s Shanghai chapter said 56% of companies have staff stuck overseas. The German Chamber of Commerce has previously been able to arrange a charter flight for members, which landed in Tianjin in late May. Around 950,000 foreigners in China have permission to work in China, the South China Morning Post reports.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has decided to double the number of flights to China to eight per week, equivalent to the total number of flights now permitted by Chinese aviation authorities to U.S. carriers. That means the number of international flights between China and the U.S. are expected to increase from the current eight flights to 16 flights per week. The two U.S. carriers currently operating passenger flights to China – United Airlines and Delta Air Lines – were granted operating permission by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to increase their service frequency from two times a week to four. VariFlight said that in September 72 routes have been planned to depart from 14 cities in the U.S., compared with 70 routes in 17 cities in China, which means the carriers in the two countries have submitted a total of 142 flight plans, much more than the number of flights approved by the two countries’ regulators. There were around 100 flights a week between the two countries before the pandemic.
As of August 12, China maintained regular passenger traffic with 50 countries, and altogether 93 airlines, including 19 domestic and 74 foreign companies, have been operating 210 weekly return frequencies on 187 international passenger routes, the CAAC said.
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