SINOVAC Biotech Ltd, a high-tech biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Beijing, China, which has independently developed seven vaccines that were either China’s first, or the world’s first vaccine products of their kind, opened its doors to international journalists to learn of its ongoing global initiatives to save lives.
The company hosted an Open Day programme for international journos on Friday 25 April to mark the World Immunization Day, providing them an opportunity to learn of its history and mission and see for themselves its vaccine products and the process involved in their production.
In his welcome speech, Senior Assistant of the Chief Business Officer (CBO) of Sinovac Biotech Ltd, Pearson Liu outlined the company’s mission of “Supply Vaccines to Eliminate Human Diseases”, and underscored its commitment to continue its consistent effort to protect human health from diseases and death with high-quality vaccines.
Mr Liu highlighted that over the past 200 years, vaccine has played an unprecedented role in controlling mortality from infectious diseases and expanded life expectancy, and SINOVAC will keep to its mission objective of providing high-quality vaccine products both domestically and internationally.
He cited innovation as the motivation and sustainable strategy driving SINOVAC forward to achieving its mission objective.
Deputy General Manager of SINOVAC Life Sciences Company, Ying Zhang thereafter provided an overview of SINOVAC’s innovation-driven Research and Development (R&D) layout.
Ms Zhang said since its founding in 2001, SINOVAC has been committed to its mission objective through the research, development, manufacturing and commercialisation of vaccines to save humanity.
She highlighted the company’s respect for the importance of R&D and innovation, and in that regard, it has so far independently developed seven vaccines, all of which are either China’s first or the world’s first vaccine products of their kind.
These include vaccines against COVID-19, enterovirus 71 (EV71) infected Hand-Foot-Mouth disease (HFMD), hepatitis A, varicella, influenza, poliomyelitis and pneumococcal disease and mumps.
SINOVAC’s COVID-19 vaccine called CoronaVac, has been approved for use in more than 60 countries and regions worldwide. The hepatitis A vaccine, Healive was passed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) prequalification requirements in 2017. The company’s EV71 vaccine, Inlive, is an innovative vaccine under “Category 1 Preventative Biological Products”, which was commercialised in China in 2016, whilst its Sabin-strain inactivated polio vaccine (sIPV) and varicella vaccine were prequalified by the WHO in 2022.
Furthermore, SINOVAC was the first company to be granted approval for its H1N1 influenza vaccine Panflu.1, and is the sole supplier of this vaccine doses for the Chinese government’s vaccination campaign and stockpiling programme.
Ms Zhang highlighted that SINOVAC’s vaccines have successfully obtained market authourisations and or product registration licenses from dozens of countries around the world.
Currently SINOVAC has more than 10 varieties of vaccines in the research phase and these are DPT series combined vaccines, hand-foot-mouth- series vaccines, MMR series live attenuated vaccines, which will be launched in the coming years, and serve the goals of disease control and prevention in China and around the world, she added.
Responding to a question during the Q&A session as to whether SINOVAC has ever received any complaint about any side-effects of its COVID-19 vaccine as in the case of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and other COVID-19 vaccines, the Brand Director of SINOVAC Holding Group Company Ltd, Vivian Yuan said the fact that SINOVAC supplied more than 9 billion doses in more than 60 countries, apart from China, is a proof of its reputation for vaccine safety and efficiency.
“We conducted very detailed research and ensured the COVID-19 vaccine we produced will protect people’s health and this is the reason why for the {Chinese] government’s tender for the influenza vaccine was also awarded to SINOVAC. We are the exclusive supplier and we are supplying 5 million doses. I believe these are the feedbacks on the safety and efficiency of our vaccines.”
Ms Yuan said SINOVAC did know from the internet reports of COVID-19 vaccine scandals in some countries, adding that the public will have their own opinion, but SINOVAC will continue to do its job to give the real data about the safety and efficiency of its vaccines.
The the Open Day programme included a tour of the company’s “Vaccine and Hope” exhibition gallery, where its history and vaccination accomplishments are displayed, and also of its influenza workshop where influenza vaccines are produced in strict compliance with international standards for safety, efficacy and manufacturing.
SINOVAC is listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. Through its wholly owned subsidiary SINOVAC Biotech (Hong Kong) Ltd, owns five branches as well as four production bases located in Haidian,Changping and Daxing districts of Beijing City andin Dalian City in Liaoning Province.
By DELI-SHARON OSO
In Beijing, China
