Beijing strikes deal to sell 550m Covid jabs

The WHO-backed COVAX program will buy up to 550m Chinese-made vaccines, as China’s unparalleled vaccine production trumps concerns about the potency of its jabs.

An Indonesian teenager receives the Sinovac Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine in Pekanbaru last week. Picture: AFP

The World Health Organisation-backed COVAX program will buy up to 550 million Chinese-made vaccines, as Beijing’s unparalleled vaccine production trumps concerns about the potency of its Covid jabs.

In a demonstration of the tightness of international supply, the Swiss-based Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation has inked a deal to buy 110 million Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines – with an option for a further 440 million Chinese-made doses.

“Their capacity is extraordinary,” professor Fiona Russell, a vaccine expert at the University of Melbourne, said of China’s current vaccine production. “They are way beyond anybody else.”

The purchase – the price of which was not revealed – was ­announced before New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Friday hosts a virtual meeting of leaders from countries in the Asia-Pacific trade group APEC to focus on the pandemic.

It comes as countries in Southeast Asia that have relied on Chinese jabs struggling with the Delta variant. Thailand is now giving shots of locally made ­AstraZeneca to citizens who have received the Chinese Sinovac jab.

In Indonesia, booster shots of the American-made Moderna vaccine are being given to health workers after at least 10 doctors fully vaccinated with Sinovac died in overrun hospitals.

While China’s vaccines are not as effective as their British, European and American counterparts, they are being produced faster than any of their competitors.

The Beijing-based Sinovac has produced more than one billion doses, making it the most prolific Covid vaccine manufacturer in the world. Forecasters at analytics company Airfinity predict Sinovac will produce more than 2.9 billion doses by the end of the year.

The new purchase by GAVI will be used in the WHO-supported COVAX program, which aims to have two billion doses available for supply to poorer countries by the end of 2021. “We were pretty confident ­before this deal that we would get there. This will help us get there faster,” said Jane Halton, COVAX’s co-chair.

Chinese supply will help fill supply lost to disruptions in India – a key producer of AstraZeneca – after the Delta strain hit the ­country.

The deal gives GAVI an option to buy a further 210 million doses of Sinovac and Sinopharm by the end of 2021, and a further 230 million in 2022.

China has previously promised 10 million shots to COVAX, although they are still to arrive.

Beijing has preferred to export – and in some cases donate – its vaccines bilaterally, with Southeast Asia, Africa and South America its three highest priorities.

“To date, we have provided more than 500 million doses and concentrates to over 100 countries and international organisations,” said China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.

A study in Brazil found Sinovac stopped symptomatic Covid infections by 50.7 per cent – just enough to get approval by the WHO.

The same team found it was much more effective at reducing hospitalisation rates and deaths.

Research has not been published on the effectiveness of Sinovac or Sinopharm against the Delta strain.