BioNTech jab becomes first international vaccine to hit the Chinese market

The coronavirus vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer is set to be the first international jab of its kind to enter the Chinese market as the pharmaceutical companies offer to supply 100 million doses to its Chinese partner, Fosun Pharma.

The jab will see use in mainland China starting next year with the total cost of the deal coming to around €250 million. The vaccine will aid in inoculating China's 1.4 billion population.

Read more: Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine hits GPs from today

China has already been using domestically-sourced vaccines within its borders to inoculate its massive population since relatively early on in the pandemic.

In response, pharmaceutical frontrunners such as Sinopharm and Sinovac have begun expanding their manufacturing capacity and distribution.

The Sinopharm vaccine has shown promising clinical trials, but they have been criticised for a lack of transparency over its efficacy rates. 

The vaccines developed by both companies use a more traditional method of development, by using an inactive virus to bait an immune response as opposed to the mRNA gene therapy immunisation used by the vaccines developed by both BioNTech and AstraZeneca.

Fosun Pharma partnered with BioNTech back in March, pledging $135 million (€110 million) to introduce a vaccine to the Chinese market.

With vaccines already approved for rollout in the UK and awaiting final regulatory approval in both the US and EU has dampened prospects for potential Chinese competitors.

Read more: EU vaccination scheme unlikely to commence until 2021

Chinese players have made promises to the government to create vaccines to ship all across the developing world, however, none of their vaccines have entered phase 3 clinical testing meaning it could be a while before they see certification outside of the country.

Centralised quarantines throughout the summer further stalled progress in developing a vaccine as testing it became almost impossible.

These quarantines worked well to stem the spread of the virus with relatively few cases being confirmed each day.

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