BEIJING (Reuters) – China is building a new COVID-19 vaccine factory that is capable of boosting annual production of a shot developed by a medical research institute to between 500 million and 1 billion doses, state-backed media said on Wednesday.
The vaccine, developed by the Institute of Medical Biology of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (IMBCAMS), is one of seven shots approved for use in China. It was not immediately clear how many doses of the vaccine are currently produced and supplied for China’s inoculation campaign.
Construction of the new facility is expected to be completed by the end of this year, Science and Technology Daily, backed by the Ministry of Science and Technology, said in an article published in its official WeChat channel.
Chinese vaccine suppliers are expanding their production capacity as China tries to inoculate 40% of its population by the end of June.
Sinovac Biotech has said it boosted its annual production capacity to 2 billion doses in April, and that it supplied more than 600 million doses as of the end of May.
Supplies are still reported to be tight in some areas, as vaccinations have hit around 20 million doses a day.
State TV reported last week that the central Henan province was behind schedule by May 20 due to either a lack of vaccine supply or an imbalance in distribution.
(Reporting by Roxanne Liu and Ryan Woo; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
