Two Covid-19 vaccines developed in China by the China Biology Technology (CNBG) under the China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) have been authorized for emergency use, Sinopharm President Liu Jingzhen said.
The news was revealed at a pandemic control press conference held by the State Council on October 20, where Liu said the two vaccines are both in phase III clinical trials, and that the Beijing Biological Products Institute and the Wuhan Biological Products Institute have finished building two plants for vaccine production. The two plants are expected to produce over one billion vaccines annually by 2021.
According to China’s vaccine management law, people eligible for early vaccination include those at high risk of infection, such as medical personnel, frontline workers, border inspectors and those who have to work or study abroad. Liu said that tens of thousands of people have already been inoculated, around 50,000 of whom have gone abroad. So far, no one has been infected.
Tian Baoguo, deputy director of the social development technology department of China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, said at the press conference that 13 Chinese vaccines have entered clinical trials, and four are in phase III trials, covering 60,000 subjects in total.
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