Overview of COVID-19 Vaccination in Progress in China

Up to now, 10 COVID-19 vaccines have been marketed worldwide, including two RNA vaccines from Pfizer & BNT and Modernam, four adenoviral vector vaccines from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Gamaleya and CanSino, three inactivated viral vaccines from CNBG and CanSinoBIO, and a recombinant subunit vaccine from Zhifei Biology. Among them, Pfizer &BNT and Moderna receive the highest volume of current orders. 

Calculation based on public available capacity reveals the capacity of the above 10 COVID-19 vaccines is expected to reach 12 billion doses in 2021. 

Current vaccination status of COVID-19

940 million or so doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered worldwide, covering about 6% of the world's population in bout 170 countries and regions, of which Israel, Chile and UAE enjoy a leading vaccination coverage globally. 

So far, the cumulative number of doses of COVID-19 vaccine in China hit about 200 million, with 3.5-5 million doses administered per day on average in the near future. It is expected that the COVID-19 vaccination rate will arrive at 40% in June 2021, at about 60% at the end of this year, and at 70% to 80% at the beginning of 2022, extending to 1.1 billion people in China. 

Three groups for vaccination in China 

The vaccination is rolled out following the order of key populations, high-risk populations and other populations to steadily increase the coverage rate of COVID-19 vaccination. 

Key populations consist chiefly of those with higher occupational exposure risk, those with overseas infection risk and those in key posts to maintain basic social operation, those over 18 years old in border areas, and those with higher transmission risk of diseases in service industries and labor-intensive industries, which amounts to a size of about 210 million; high-risk populations mainly refer to the elderly, patients with underlying diseases and so on, with a size of about 460 million; and the size of other populations reaches about 440 million. The vaccination rate target of about 80% will be achieved after all the above three types are vaccinated. 

Capacity of four domestic COVID-19 vaccine firms

In terms of China's COVID-19 vaccines under study, inactivated virus vaccine of CNBG and SINOVAC BIOTECH, and adenovirus vectored vaccine of CanSino have been approved and conditionally available on the market as of now. The recombinant subunit vaccine of Zhifei Biology has been certified for emergency use. 

Current publicly available information provides an insight that the vaccine annual output of the above four domestic hospital supplies manufacturers is estimated to be approximately 2.9 billion doses in 2021, which can cater to 1.3 billion people's vaccination requirements with 2 injections per person. The market scale of the inland vaccine is expected to come near RMB 18 billion. 

On the top of meeting vaccination needs at home, inactivated virus vaccines of CNBG and SINOVAC BIOTECH have been exported to address vaccination needs in overseas markets. It is primarily put to use in more than 40 developing countries and regions worldwide.

This article is first published on 

Pharma Sources Insight August 2021

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About  the Author:    

Xiaoyaowan, a pharmaceutical industry practitioner, a word carrier in the We-media era focusing on changes of the pharma industry.