China is preparing for large-scale deployment of COVID-19 vaccine

Taipei, Taiwan (AP) —State governments across China are ordering domestic coronavirus vaccines, but health officials say how well they work, or to 1.4 billion people in the country. I haven’t said yet how it can be reached.

China’s foreign minister said at a UN conference that developers are speeding up final testing as Britain announces approval for emergency use of Pfizer’s vaccine candidates and providers scramble to set up distributions. It was.

China’s emerging pharmaceutical industry has at least five vaccines from four producers tested in more than 12 countries, including Russia, Egypt and Mexico. Health experts say that even if successful, the certification process in the United States, Europe, Japan and other developed countries may be too complex to be used there. However, China said it would guarantee that the product would be affordable for developing countries.

A developer, the China National Pharmaceutical Group, known as Sinopharm, said in November that it applied for final market approval for the use of the vaccine in China. Others have been approved for emergency use by healthcare professionals and others at increased risk of infection.

“We need to prepare for mass production,” said Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chunlan, who oversaw much of the country’s response when he visited the developers on Wednesday, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Sun visited one of Shino Farm’s Beijing subsidiaries. Another producer, Sinovac, and the Institute of the National Medical Product Administration, a regulatory body that approves medical products for public use.

The government has not yet revealed how many people are planning to vaccinate. Border guards and other high-risk people are planned to be vaccinated this month, Sun said.

Both companies use more traditional methods than Western developers.

They say they can be stored at 2-8 ° C (36-46F), unlike Pfizer vaccines, which must be stored frozen at temperatures as low as -70 ° C (-94 ° F). Chinese producers have not yet stated how they will be distributed.

More than 1 million people in China receive vaccines under an emergency license. Health experts are wondering why China is using them on such a large scale now that outbreaks are largely controlled within the border.

Health officials earlier said China could produce 610 million doses by the end of this year and increase it to one billion doses next year.

The government of Jiangsu Province, where the major cities of Nanjing are located, issued a vaccine procurement notice from Sinovac and Sinofarm on Wednesday for emergency use vaccination.

Officials in western Sichuan, home to about 85 million people, announced on Monday that they had already purchased the vaccine. An official newspaper in Anhui Province, southeastern Beijing, said the local housing commission had issued a notice asking if residents wanted the vaccine.

According to Sichuan and Anhui provinces, two vaccinations will cost a total of 400 yuan ($ 60).

The Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines were approved for emergency use in July.

In October, Zhejiang Province in southern Shanghai provided public vaccinations under an emergency permit. He said that those who are considered high risk will be prioritized.

In November, Sinopharm’s Communist Party secretary said nearly one million people had been vaccinated.

In September, Sinovac’s CEO said about 3,000 employees were vaccinated. He said the company provided tens of thousands of doses to the Beijing Municipal Government.

The developers have not yet revealed the effects of the vaccine and possible side effects.

Sinopharm is conducting clinical trials in 10 countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Peru and Argentina, with approximately 60,000 volunteers participating. Two facilities will be built in China, and it will be possible to administer 200 million times a year.

Sinovac is testing in Brazil, Turkey and Indonesia. Its latest published data, a study in the scientific journal Lancet, showed that the candidate had lower levels of antibody in people than those who recovered from COVID-19. The company predicts that it will be able to produce hundreds of millions of vaccines by February or March next year.

Another producer, CanSino, has been testing in Russia, Pakistan and Mexico and is pursuing partnerships in Latin American countries. The vaccine, which has been used in emergencies by the Chinese military, uses harmless adenovirus to transport genes to human cells, triggering an immune response.

The fourth company, Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biologic Pharmacy Co., is conducting final-stage testing throughout China.

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The Associated Press journalist Olivia Zhang contributed to this report.