Sinopharm says it has capacity to provide over 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses in 2021

• Two vaccines from Sinopharm are being used in China, one of which has gained emergency use approval from WHO.
• Firm's chairman says Sinopharm has also planned a manufacturing facility for a third shot, which is in an early-stage clinical trial.
• Liu Jingzhen declines to disclose how many shots the state-backed drugmaker has agreed to give to COVAX programme.

BEIJING: China National Pharmaceutical Group, which developed the Sinopharm vaccine, said that it can provide 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine jabs to the world beyond China in the second half of this year.

That level of supply capability assumes vaccination demand in China is being met, Liu said at a panel of the Global Health Forum of the Boao Forum for Asia.

"Our annual production capacity exceeds 5 billion doses," firm's chairman Liu Jingzhen said, "This is our own capacity."

He declined to disclose how many shots the state-backed drugmaker has agreed to give to the global COVAX programme for sharing doses, mainly with poor countries.

Read more: WHO approves China's Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine

Two vaccines from Sinopharm are being used in China, one of which has gained emergency use approval from the World Health Organization, a prerequisite for a vaccine to be included in the COVAX initiative.

Liu said Sinopharm has also planned a manufacturing facility for a third shot, which is being tested in an early-stage clinical trial.

The GAVI vaccine alliance is in talks with Sinovac Biotech, another major COVID-19 vaccine provider from China, to expand the COVAX portfolio, a GAVI spokesperson said on Wednesday.

China promised in February to provide 10 million doses to COVAX.