BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Wednesday that three drug manufacturers have submitted orders to supply their COVID-19 vaccines to the global COVAX vaccine sharing scheme, in the country’s first formal move to provide locally developed injections for the initiative.
Sinovac Biotech, China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) and CanSino Biologics signed up to join the scheme, Hua Chunying, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, told a news conference on Wednesday.
The COVAX scheme – led by the World Health Organization and the GAVI vaccine alliance – is expected to start distributing vaccines to poor and middle-income countries in February, with 2 out of 3 billion doses expected to be delivered this year.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday that vaccine nationalism had brought the world to the brink of “catastrophic moral failure” and called on countries and manufacturers to distribute doses more fairly around the world. world.
Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines are already being launched in several countries, including Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
None of the three companies have released detailed data on the effectiveness of their vaccines to the public yet, but limited access to rival vaccines developed by Western drug manufacturers has led many developing countries to apply for Chinese vaccines.
Sinovac, Sinopharm and CanSino did not immediately comment on when COVAX approved their vaccines, quantities of supplies and what data they provided to COVAX.
COVAX was not immediately available for comment.
(Reporting by Cate Cadell, edited by Louise Heavens and Jane Merriman)