Sinovac and CanSino Pursuing Technology Transfer to 10 Countries Including Mexico and Pakistan
[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Jo Young-shin] Sinovac and CanSino, manufacturers of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines, are promoting plans to transfer technology to other countries to address the global vaccine inequality issue.
According to the Global Times on the 21st, Yin Weidong, chairman of Sinovac, stated at the Boao Forum held in Hainan the previous day that they plan to transfer vaccine technology to 10 countries soon.
At the same event, Yu Xuefeng, chairman of another vaccine company CanSino, also revealed that they are considering technology transfer to countries such as Mexico and Pakistan.
Chinese companies have been exporting vaccines in semi-finished form to countries including Brazil and Mexico to improve vaccine production efficiency.
Sinovac has produced 260 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines so far, supplying 60% of them overseas.
Zheng Zhongwei, director of the Medical and Health Science and Technology Development Research Center at the National Health Commission, said, "China's COVID-19 vaccine production this year will exceed 3 billion doses." Director Zheng dismissed criticisms regarding the low efficacy of Chinese vaccines.
Regarding Sinovac vaccine's 50.4% efficacy in clinical trials in Brazil, he said, "Vaccine protection rates depend on many factors such as clinical trial environment, participant groups, and the outbreak rate in the respective country," adding, "While Sinovac vaccine's protection rate is 50.4% in Brazil, it reaches 83.5% in Turkey."
Meanwhile, as of the 19th, the total number of Chinese vaccine doses administered was counted at 195 million.
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