China’s officials yesterday explained their present plan for getting COVID-19 vaccines distributed around the world. Wang Wenbin of the Foreign Ministry said that their vaccines “will be made a global public good, contributing to the accessibility and affordability of vaccines in developing countries.” China is donating vaccines to 53 developing countries, along with 10 million doses to COVAX, the World Health Organization-affiliated program. It has also contracted with 22 other countries for sale of vaccines. Shipments went out to Pakistan, Cambodia, Laos, Peru, and Equatorial Guinea over the last 72 hours.
China has six vaccines likely available in 2021, developed by Cansino Biologics, Sinovac, Wuhan Institute, Beijing Institute, the Chinese Academy of Medical sciences, and Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical. They’ve worked with various countries during the trial phases, including Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey, Peru, and Morocco. Wang made clear that the government supported their domestic companies in both R&D and manufacturing with foreign partners.
Global Times on Monday found that the logistics involved in ramping up production and distribution of the vaccines were on target. One billion vaccine doses are being produced by Sinopharm in 2021, according to Yang Xiaoming, chairman of China National Biotec Group. Sinovac just obtained conditional approval on Saturday, and recently completed a second plant, increasing its 2021 production level to one billion. A third plant was recently begun. GT quoted a logistics manager at SF Express: “Relevant departments and eligible companies are preparing to ship billions of vaccines using frozen boxes, temperature-controlled facilities, cargo planes and trucks in the national mega-logistics system…” It also quoted another manager: “It is expected that the COVID-19 vaccine output in China will see huge growth in March and April, according to customers’ orders and contact with customers.” The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing has something called the Healthcare Logistics Association that has looked at the scope of preparations and confirmed that they are on target. Part of their estimation is based upon what they achieved last year in shipping PPE around the world.
