News Desk
Sinovac Research & Development Co from Zhongguancun Demonstration Zone announced on Nov 7 that it had received more than $500 million from China Biopharmaceutical Co to further its development, capacity expansion and production as well as other development and operation activities.
“Sinovac has made significant progress in the development of the COVID-19 inactivated vaccine CoronaVac, and clinical research in Asia and Latin America has entered a critical stage. The new investment will ensure the supply of high-quality vaccines on a larger scale worldwide,” said Yin Weidong, president of Sinovac.
CoronaVac has obtained the results of Phase I and Phase II clinical studies in the adult group and the elderly group in China, while Phase I and Phase II clinical research in the juvenile group has been initiated.
The results of Phase I and Phase II clinical trials for healthy adults aged 18 to 59 were published online in the Lancet Journal of Infectious Diseases on Nov 17, 2020. Phase III clinical studies are being carried out in Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey, Chile and other countries.
The annual production capacity of the COVID-19 vaccine production line that Sinovac R&D has built and put into use exceeds 300 million doses.
The second production line planned to be completed by the end of 2020 will increase the annual production capacity of CoronaVac to above 600 million doses.
According to market demand and available funds, CoronaVac may further expand its production capacity in the future to make greater contributions to the availability and affordability of global COVID-19 vaccines.
Sinovac R&D was registered and established in 2009. The company is located in the Daxing Biomedical Industry Base of Zhongguancun Science Park. It is a national-level and Zhongguancun high-tech enterprise, as well as a support organization of the Beijing Human Preventive Vaccine Engineering Technology Research Center.
The enterprise specializes in the research, development, production and technical services of human vaccines and related products, providing technical support for preventing and controlling major infectious diseases. It has established close cooperation between production and research with well-known universities and research institutes.
Currently, the professional platforms that Sinovac R&D has set up include a virus isolation and identification technology platform, cell factory platform, freeze-drying process technology platform, animal evaluation platform and quality control platform.
Sinovac R&D has undertaken two national major new drug creation special projects and two Beijing science and technology projects.
It has obtained 14 Chinese invention patent authorizations, and its research results have been published in internationally renowned academic journals such as Science, Nature, and Lancet Infect Diseases.
China Daily
