DUBAI — A new factory in Abu Dhabi will start manufacturing a COVID-19 vaccine
from Chinese pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm later this year under a joint
venture between Sinopharm and Abu Dhabi-based technology company Group 42
(G42).
اضافة اعلان
While the new plant scales up, interim production of the
vaccine has already begun in the emirate of Ras Al-Khaimah by Gulf
Pharmaceutical Industries PSC (Julphar).
The venture is an expansion of Chinese diplomacy in the Gulf
region and helps the UAE’s quest to diversify its economy away from hydrocarbon
production.
The new plant, which is being built in the Khalifa
Industrial Zone of Abu Dhabi (KIZAD), will have a production capacity of 200
million doses a year with three filling lines and five automated packaging
lines, a statement from the joint venture said on Monday.
The vaccine will be called Hayat-Vax when manufactured in
the UAE, but is the same inactivated vaccine from the Beijing Institute of
Biological Product (BiBP), a unit of Sinopharm’s China National Biotec Group
(CNBG), that the UAE approved for general use in December.
“Hayat-Vax is the first COVID-19 vaccine to be produced in
the Arab world,” the JV said.
As part of the joint venture, interim production of
Hayat-Vax has begun in Ras Al-Khaimah, one of the UAE’s seven emirates, under a
deal between G42 and Julphar, the statement said.
That interim production line has an initial capacity of 2
million doses per month and no details were given about how long production
will continue there.
Julphar’s share price surged 14.4 percent to 1.4 dirhams
($0.3812), its biggest single-day gain since June.
The UAE, through G42, hosted Phase III clinical trials of
the Sinopharm vaccine from July, which later expanded to other countries in the
region including Bahrain. The UAE approved the vaccine for frontline workers in
September before making it available to the general public in December.
G42 has previously said it has distribution and
manufacturing agreements with Sinopharm and hopes to provide the UAE and other
states in the region with the vaccine.
The deal was launched during a two-day visit to the UAE by
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi which ended on Sunday.
The joint venture also includes a purpose-built research and
development hub for life sciences, biotechnology and vaccine production in
KIZAD.
“Our joint venture is also actively looking to bring our
capabilities to new markets around the world,” G42 CEO Peng Xiao said.
The UAE has said its trials showed the vaccine has 86
percent efficacy, while Sinopharm reports 79.34 percent efficacy based on
interim results.
Some people in the UAE failed to develop sufficient
antibodies after a second dose of the Sinopharm vaccine and were given a third
dose, the UAE health ministry said this month. It said the number was “minimal”
compared to the number of vaccines administered.
On Sunday, a Sinopharm executive said the company will need
to assess results from overseas Phase III clinical trials to decide whether its
two-shot vaccine should be followed by a booster shot.
“Thanks to the close collaboration with the UAE, Sinopharm’s
vaccine has been now administered to millions of people in the country, the
region, and the world,” Sinopharm Chairman Liu Jingzhen said at a virtual
launch also attended by UAE Foreign Affairs Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed
Al Nahyan.
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