BEIJING – China-based leading biopharmaceutical company, Sinovac Biotech Ltd (Sinovac) will invest US$2 billion (RM9.3 billion) in research and development and a further US$3 billion in the mass production of vaccines and pharmaceutical products in the next five years.
Its chief operation officer, Qiang Gao, said at the same time, the company would also like to establish research and development centres as well as industrial bases in more than 10 countries to better serve the local people, local governments and people across the world.
“Sinovac has established reliable cooperation relationships with dozens of countries and obtained product sales licences, among which Covid-19 vaccines, Hepatitis A vaccines and influenza vaccines have been sold to many countries, including Southeast Asia,” he said.
He told the media this during the Sinovac Global Media Day at Sinovac’s vaccine headquarters here, attended by 84 journalists from 63 countries who are participating in the China International Press Communication Centre programme.
Qiang said up to September this year, the total global supply of the Sinovac vaccines was 2.88 billion doses, of which 1.75 billion doses were supplied to China and 1.13 billion doses were sent to countries and regions outside China.
He said in the past 20 years, Sinovac had developed 13 types of vaccines that have been used in more than 80 countries and regions, benefiting more than three billion people.
“We believe that Sinovac vaccines and other pharmaceutical products will reach more countries and contribute to the health of people in more countries,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sinovac vice-president and Quality Management Committee chairman Weining Meng said the company is keen to help foreign countries strengthen vaccine research and development efforts as well as their public health services.
He said this is especially to help developing countries make better preparations for the next pandemic if it happens.
“We are not only willing to become the real reliable vaccine supplier, but also we would like to become a strategic partner for those countries’ public health securities by setting up a local vaccine industry, setting up some local vaccine development facilities,” he said.
Sinovac kicked off the construction of a vaccine factory in Chile with a total US$100 million investment in May, which will be able to produce 50 million doses of vaccine yearly once completed. The country also donated a vaccine cold storage facility to Egypt with a capacity of up to 150 million doses of vaccines.
Malaysia took the first delivery of Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine on February 27 last year.
Earlier, journalists were taken on a tour to the Quality Control Laboratory, which has tested more than 3.5 million doses of vaccines. Besides that, the media entourage also visited the Covid-19 Vaccine Bulk Workshop, which can produce approximately one billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine (Vero Cell). – Bernama, October 1, 2022
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