AstraZeneca PLC's COVID-19 drug will be manufactured by Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products Co. Ltd. of China, the British biotech company said late Thursday.
AstraZeneca's partnership with the China biological products maker emphasizes its campaign to produce a safe and effective treatment for sufferers of the disease, considering that China's own pharmaceutical companies are now at the front lines in eight of the 26 coronavirus vaccine development programs currently being conducted around the world.
AstraZeneca will give Kangtai - a leading vaccine producer in China - exclusive "clinical development, production and commercialization rights" to the vaccine in the mainland. Kantai will ensure 100 million doses of the vaccine by end of the year after which the biologics group will increase production to 200 million doses annually by the end of next year.
AstraZeneca will work out a deal for the two to look into the possibility of marketing a COVID-19 vaccine in other markets. The British group has already committed to providing more than 2 billion shots of its potential drug, if proven safe and effective, in the U.S., Europe, and India.
AstraZeneca has sealed production agreements around the world, including South Korea and Brazil, to make at least 2 billion doses of the vaccine. There are no approved treatment or vaccines for COVID-19.
Other partnerships between China and Western biotech groups include a deal between Fosun and BioNTech of Germany and one between Beijing AdVaccine Bio and Inovio Pharma.
AstraZeneca has a bigger share in China than other large pharmaceutical companies. China is the second-biggest market, behind the U.S., where a fifth of its business and income is derived from.
Meanwhile, Japan is set to sign an agreement AstraZeneca for the supply of more than 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine that the British pharmaceutical company is developing with Oxford University, sources said Friday.
