By Roxanne Liu and Tony Munroe
BEIJING (Reuters) – Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products will produce AstraZeneca Plc’s possible COVID-19 vaccine in mainland China, The British pharmaceutical company said Thursday, its first agreement with one of the most populous countries in the world.
To meet the demand of the Chinese market, Shenzhen Kangtai will have an annual production capacity of at least one hundred million doses of the experimental AZD1222, which AstraZeneca co-developed with researchers at Oxford University, until the end of this year, AstraZeneca said.
You will need to have the ability to produce at least two hundred million doses until the end of next year under the exclusive framework agreement, added its on the Chinese social networking site WeChat.
The two corporations will also explore cooperation on the vaccine candidate in other markets, AstraZeneca said.
There are no approved vaccines opposed to COVID-19, highly contagious respiratory disease through the new coronavirus, however, the World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that the AstraZeneca vaccine is one of the main candidates.
The company has signed global production agreements for its purpose to produce 2 billion doses of vaccine.
Corporations responded to requests for comment.
(Reporting through the Hong Kong newsroom; written through Josephine Mason; edited through Kevin Liffey and Jan Harvey)