BEIJING, February 26 (Reuters) – The production capacity of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics Inc (CanSinoBIO) and an institute with military support could reach half a billion annual doses this year, said a scientist who leads the research for injection to the state media.
“There is no problem that the annual production capacity could reach 500 million this year,” said Chen Wei, a researcher at the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, in an interview with China Central Television on Friday night.
Chen did not say how many doses of the single-dose vaccine Ad5-nCoV, among the four regimens that China approved for public use, will actually be manufactured in 2021.
CanSinoBIO was not immediately available for comment.
Sinovac Biotech, whose injection of two doses of CoronaVac has also been released for public use in China, said it intended to have an annual capacity of 1 billion doses in bulk this month, although its capacity for filling vials and syringes is less than its manufacturing capacity. in bulk .
The China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) has two vaccines eligible for public use, developed by the Wuhan and Beijing units, respectively. Both vaccines require two injections.
The Wuhan unit has been mass producing its injection in a facility that can produce up to 100 million doses per year. The Beijing unit has an annual capacity of 1 billion doses. (Reporting by Roxanne Liu and Ryan Woo; Editing by William Mallard)