China'S Vaccine Production Has Accelerated In An All-Round Way, And 18 Enterprises Have Built Production Capacity

With the approval of the first domestic vaccine conditional marketing, China's vaccine production is accelerating.

On January 5, the 21st century economic report learned from the Ministry of industry and information technology that at present, Sinopharm Zhongsheng Beijing company, Sinopharm Zhongsheng Wuhan company and Beijing Kexing Zhongwei company have completed the capacity construction task in 2020 and are qualified for large-scale production. Their vaccine production has started the "accelerated" mode. The company's personnel are working with high intensity and full load, racing against the clock and working day and night Organize production.

Among them, the production capacity of new coronavirus inactivated vaccine of Sinopharm Beijing Co., Ltd. will reach more than 1 billion doses in 2021, and the annual production capacity will be increased to more than 600 million doses after the construction and use of the second phase production line of Kexing Zhongwei. The production capacity of these two alone is more than 1.6 billion doses.

At present, Malaysia, Turkey, the Philippines, Mexico and other countries have ordered Chinese vaccines. Indonesia, Pakistan and Mexico have also signed agreements with China to produce vaccines. At the initial stage of marketing, there may be a gap between supply and demand of vaccines in China.

However, the Ministry of industry and information technology said that at present, 18 domestic enterprises have been carrying out the capacity construction of new coronavirus vaccine. With the further improvement of the production capacity of new coronavirus inactivated vaccine and the gradual completion of the capacity construction of enterprises in other technical routes, the production capacity of China's new coronavirus vaccine can meet the domestic demand for mass vaccination.

Vaccine production in 18 Enterprises

According to the Ministry of industry and information technology, on December 30, 2020, the new coronavirus inactivated vaccine of Zhongsheng Beijing company was approved by the State Food and Drug Administration with conditions attached to the market. Prior to that, there were also national medicine Zhongsheng Wuhan company and Beijing Kexing Zhongwei company's new coronavirus inactivated vaccine approved for emergency use, and the vaccines of the above three companies have begun to vaccinate key populations.

According to the Ministry of industry and information technology, in order to meet the needs of new coronavirus vaccination for key population at this stage, Sinopharm Zhongsheng Beijing company, Sinopharm Zhongsheng Wuhan company and Beijing Kexing Zhongwei company have started the "accelerated" mode. During the new year's Day holiday, the company's personnel work with high intensity and full load, and organize production day and night.

Among them, in 2021, the production capacity of new coronavirus inactivated vaccine reached more than 1 billion doses. Sinopharma Wuhan company and Beijing Kexing Zhongwei company are also making every effort to speed up the expansion of production capacity to guarantee the vaccination demand of new coronavirus.

Zhang Jin, who is in charge of the production of new coronavirus inactivated vaccine project in Beijing company of Sinopharm, recently introduced that a packaging line of the company can pack 200000 doses a day. In order to promote more vaccines on the market before the Spring Festival, its employees have given up the rest day and work 24 hours.

In an interview with 21st century economic report on January 5, Liu Peicheng, spokesman of Kexing holding Biotechnology Co., Ltd., said that at present, the annual production capacity of the new crown vaccine production line has been completed and put into use, with an annual production capacity of more than 300 million doses. After the construction of the phase II production line recently completed and put into use, the annual production capacity will be increased to more than 600 million doses In the future, it is possible to further expand production capacity and make greater contributions to the accessibility and affordability of the global new crown vaccine. "

In addition, Beijing Kexing Zhongwei has recently obtained more than 500 million US dollars of investment from China's biopharmaceutical industry for the new type of coronavirus inactivated vaccine kelefu ? Further development, capacity expansion and production activities.

The Ministry of industry and information technology (MIIT) said that preparations for large-scale production of the new coronavirus vaccine were being carried out in an all-round way. On the one hand, a special workshop on the production support of new coronavirus vaccine was set up to track and schedule the production capacity of key enterprises every week; on the other hand, enterprises with various technical routes were required to simultaneously promote capacity construction; in addition, the Ministry of industry and information technology also guided enterprises to study and analyze the supply risk of production materials, promote key materials to speed up the production technology research, and organize all levels Tourism enterprises should strengthen the docking of supply and demand to ensure the stability of the production and supply chain of new coronavirus vaccine.

It is worth noting that on December 31, 2020, Wang Jiangping, Vice Minister of the Ministry of industry and information technology, once again visited Sinopharm Beijing company and Beijing Kexing Zhongwei company to investigate the capacity construction of new coronavirus vaccine. He stressed that it is necessary to steadily speed up the expansion of production capacity, scientifically arrange the production plan on the premise of ensuring the quality and safety of vaccines, maximize the potential of production, and make every effort to ensure the production and supply of new coronavirus vaccines.

According to the Ministry of industry and information technology, the three enterprises, Sinopharm Zhongsheng Beijing company, Sinopharm Zhongsheng Wuhan company and Beijing Kexing Zhongwei company, have completed the capacity construction task in 2020 and are qualified for large-scale production. The capacity construction of other enterprises is also advancing orderly according to the plan. At present, 18 domestic enterprises have been carrying out the capacity construction of new coronavirus vaccine.

In the next step, the Ministry will continue to strengthen production scheduling, promote enterprises to further expand production capacity through a series of ways such as the transformation of production workshops and the improvement of production technology, so as to do a good job in the production organization and guarantee of new coronavirus vaccine.

The production capacity can meet the domestic demand for mass vaccination

At the press conference of the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council on December 31, 2020, Zeng Yixin, deputy director of the National Health Commission and head of the vaccine research and development team of the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council, said that China plans to establish a whole population immune barrier through vaccination. The basic attribute of the vaccine is public goods, and the price may vary according to the scale of use. But a big premise is that it must be free for all.

Shen Bo, head of the International Department of the Ministry of foreign affairs, said, "after the research and development of China's new crown vaccine is completed and put into use, it will firmly fulfill its commitment to supply the vaccine to the world at a fair and reasonable price as a global public product."

It is worth noting that at present, Malaysia, Turkey, the Philippines, Mexico and other countries have ordered Chinese vaccines. Indonesia, Pakistan and Mexico have signed agreements with China to produce vaccines.

Can vaccine production in China and the world meet these needs?

A person in charge of the China division of Santa Fe Pasteur vaccine made an account to the 21st century economic report: there are about 7.5 billion people in the world today. About 70% of the population, or 5.2 billion people, need to be vaccinated. Most vaccines need two or even three injections, which means that at least 10 billion doses of new crown vaccine are needed.

"This means that while ensuring the supply of other vaccines, the production capacity of the new crown vaccine needs to be tripled on the basis of all existing vaccine production capacity, which has brought great pressure on vaccine production, cold chain transportation and vaccination."

However, Liu Peicheng pointed out that the universal vaccination of the vaccine was not achieved overnight, but was carried out step by step according to the population, age, demand and other factors.

Zeng Yixin also said that the first step of vaccination is to vaccinate key populations and people with high risk of infection. In June this year, China launched an emergency vaccination program for high-risk people, and by the end of November, more than 1.5 million doses of the vaccine had been vaccinated. Subsequently, the vaccination work of key population was officially launched on December 15. At present, more than 3 million doses have been inoculated to key population in China.

The second step is to gradually expand the coverage of vaccines to high-risk groups, mainly the elderly and people with basic diseases, according to the improvement of vaccine supply capacity with the approval of conditional marketing of vaccines. The third step is to extend vaccination to the whole population.

Chen Weixing, deputy general manager of saidI consulting medical and health industry research center, told the 21st century economic report, "previously, due to the possibility of clinical failure in vaccine research and development, the large-scale construction of production line was faced with high uncertainty. Therefore, after the successful development of new crown vaccine, the production capacity may be insufficient in the initial stage, and priority should be given to the elderly and other key groups. However, once the R & D is successful, China may speed up the procurement and commissioning of equipment, and the capacity increase will be very fast. "

Mao Junfeng, deputy director of the Department of consumer goods industry of the Ministry of industry and information technology, also pointed out at the above press conference that the improvement of vaccine production capacity is a dynamic process. In addition to the above-mentioned inactivated vaccines, the construction of vaccine production capacity of other technical routes is also advancing orderly as planned The production capacity can meet the domestic demand for mass vaccination. "

It is reported that up to now, 14 vaccines from 5 technical routes in China have entered clinical trials, of which 3 technical routes and 5 vaccines have entered phase III clinical trials.

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