Sinopharm’s Wuhan institute rolls out its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines for mass use, annual output reaches 100 million doses

Picture shows inactivated vaccines produced by Sinopharm's Wuhan institute Photo: Changjiang Daily Sina Weibo account

The first batch of COVID-19 inactivated vaccines produced by Sinopharm's Wuhan institute was produced and made ready for mass use on Sunday after it was granted conditional market approval on Thursday. The institute said they have the capacity to produce 100 million doses per year.

The biosafety workshop of Sinopharm's Wuhan institute has passed a review from national drug regulators and been put into operation, the institute said at a Sunday press conference.

Sinopharm's research institute in Wuhan said on Wednesday that their inactivated COVID-19 vaccine showed an efficacy of 72.51 percent after two shots in phase III clinical trials that kicked off on July 16, 2020 in several countries including the United Arab Emirates.

The vaccine was granted conditional approval for mass use together with another COVID-19 vaccine candidate produced by CanSino, according to a statement posted on the website of China's National Medical Products Administration on Thursday.

The vaccines by Sinopharm's Wuhan institute marked the third of such inactivated vaccine candidate that has been given marketing authorization in China.

Two other homegrown inactivated vaccines have already been granted conditional approval by the health authorities.

An inactivated vaccine developed by Beijing Biological Products Institute under Sinopharm's subsidiary, China National Biotec Group (CNBG), was China's first COVID-19 vaccine to receive conditional approval for the country's domestic market on December 31, 2020. It was followed by CoronaVac, developed by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech.

CanSino's vaccine is China's first Ad5-nCoV COVID-19 vaccine. It is a recombinant adenovirus vector vaccine jointly developed by CanSino Biologics and researchers from the Institute of Military Medicine under the Academy of Military Sciences led by Chen Wei.

Chen told media on Friday that the annual production capacity of the vaccine can reach 500 million doses, which means 500 million people can be vaccinated in a year because the vaccine only requires one shot.