Peru’s President Pedro Castillo receives China’s Sinopharm vaccine against COVID-19 on Aug 6, the opening day of the fourth vaccination program that started in the capital Lima. Castillo’s vaccination coincided with the widespread use of the Sinopharm vaccine among the general population. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
President Xi Jinping said on Aug 5 that China will provide a total of 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the world this year, in the latest effort to honor its commitment to make vaccines a global public good by ensuring vaccine accessibility and affordability.
He also said that China will donate US$100 million to the COVAX global vaccine initiative for the distribution of vaccines to developing countries.
Xi made the announcements in a written speech delivered to the first meeting of the International Forum on COVID-19 Vaccine Cooperation.
As one of the five measures announced by Xi at the Global Health Summit in May to further support global solidarity against COVID-19, the forum aims to provide a platform for countries that develop and produce vaccines, as well as companies and other stakeholders, to explore ways of promoting fair and equitable distribution of vaccines around the world.
Participants from about 30 countries and international organizations, including representatives of the United Nations have underlined the importance of vaccine multilateralism and called on countries to enhance international cooperation on vaccines in order to build a global community of health for all.
Noting the repeated resurgence and frequent mutations of the coronavirus, Xi said in his written address to the Aug 5 meeting that he expected the forum to make new progress in promoting fair access to vaccines, inject new momentum into cooperation and solidarity among developing countries, and contribute to mankind’s early victory against the virus.
China will continue to help developing countries deal with the pandemic to the best of its ability and will work with the international community to advance international vaccine cooperation and build a community with a shared future for mankind, the president said.
State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who hosted the meeting, which was held via video link on Aug 5, said that the vaccines, which matter so much to humanity’s fight against the virus, should be distributed worldwide fairly and reasonably.
“Vaccines should be made vaccines of the people in the real sense,” he said.
According to Wang, since September last year, China has been and is donating vaccines to more than 100 countries, and has exported vaccines to more than 60 countries, with the total exceeding 770 million doses, ranking first worldwide.
China was the first to cooperate with other developing countries in vaccine production, making the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Indonesia and Brazil the first countries in their respective regions to have COVID-19 vaccine production capacity. With the support of the Chinese government, Chinese vaccine companies have also started joint production in Malaysia, Turkey, Pakistan and Mexico, with production capacity exceeding 200 million doses. China has also actively provided vaccines to COVAX — a worldwide initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines — UN peacekeepers and the International Olympic Committee.
Wang said that China has no political purpose in or does not seek any economic interests from its international cooperation in vaccines, and there have never been any political conditions attached to such cooperation.
However, Wang said that globally, there are still outstanding problems such as insufficient vaccine production capacity, inequitable distribution and uneven vaccination.
In order to triumph in the battle against the pandemic, Wang said “we have no option but to stay united and work together”.
He called for efforts to put lives above anything else and promote global access to vaccines, to defend morality and justice and offer more assistance to developing countries, to practice multilateralism and enhance the effectiveness of international cooperation, and to strengthen coordination and build multiple lines of defense against the pandemic.
According to a news release on the Foreign Ministry’s website, the foreign delegates spoke highly of China’s leading role in international anti-pandemic cooperation, especially vaccine cooperation, and thanked China for honoring its commitment to make vaccines a global public good, and for making outstanding contributions to promoting vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries.
In a joint statement the forum issued after its first meeting, participants underlined the importance of COVID-19 vaccines as a global public good, and called upon all parties to step up efforts to make vaccines more accessible and affordable in developing countries, especially in least-developed countries.
They also supported the waiver of intellectual property rights on vaccines.
Ruan Zongze, executive vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies, said that the meeting on Aug 5 helped to address the biggest challenge now facing global cooperation — the uneven accessibility and affordability of vaccines.
“While poor countries struggle to find vaccines, rich countries have pre-purchased more vaccines than they will ultimately need. Such inequality of vaccine distribution has hindered global cooperation on jointly fighting the virus,” Ruan said.
By promoting international vaccine cooperation, China plays a leading and active role in building a global community of health for all with practical actions, he said.
Since Xi vowed at the virtual opening of the 73rd World Health Assembly last year to make China’s COVID-19 vaccine development and use a global public good, Chinese vaccines have gained increasing recognition across the world and have been granted approval for emergency use by the World Health Organization and more than 100 countries.
A shipment of nearly 980,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines donated by domestic drugmaker China National Biotech Group through COVAX left for Pakistan in the early hours of Aug 9 as part of China’s effort to help the rest of the world tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said.
The doses, the first sent in a 170 million dose agreement, were packaged on the evening of Aug 6 at a Beijing unit of CNBG, a subsidiary of State-owned Sinopharm. These were sent to cold storage at an airport on Aug 7, awaiting a security check and customs clearance.
“With the first batch of our COVID-19 vaccines under COVAX having been shipped, the company is gradually delivering on its promise to provide vaccines to COVAX,” CNBG said in a statement released on Aug 9.
The inactivated COVID-19 vaccine developed by CNBG’s Beijing unit received emergency use authorization from the WHO — necessary for COVAX suppliers — on May 7, and the first batch allocated for the program rolled off the production line on June 1.
On July 7, CNBG’s Beijing unit signed an agreement with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, or Gavi, a co-leader of COVAX, pledging to supply more than 170 million doses to the program.
Under the agreement, the company will deliver 60 million doses to COVAX from July through October, and Gavi has the option to purchase 60 million doses in the fourth quarter and another 50 million in the first half of next year.
CNBG said that after its second production line obtains WHO approval, it will provide the line’s annual 1 billion dose capacity to COVAX.
Liu Jingzhen, chairman of Sinopharm, CNBG’s parent company, said recently that CNBG is the only entity in the world that owns the intellectual property and has created three COVID-19 vaccines making use of two different technologies.
The company’s COVID-19 vaccines have gained market approval in eight countries and obtained emergency use authorization or market access in 93 countries, regions and international organizations.
The Sinovac Biotech vaccine has also received WHO approval to supply COVAX. The Chinese company has developed an inactivated COVID-19 vaccine and will ship the initial 50 million doses from July to September. Gavi is authorized to buy 330 million more doses from it by the first half of next year.
Huang Tianlei, a research fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a think tank in the United States, said COVID-19 vaccine distribution needs to be made equal in order to bring the pandemic to an end, “as no one can truly be safe until everyone is safe”.
Huang said the COVID-19 crisis occurs at a time of rising nationalism around the globe where beggar-thy-neighbor policies, such as vaccine nationalism and export restrictions on medical supplies, adopted by many governments, have resulted in a great shortage in the supply of global public goods.
“It is therefore critical that China expands its role in global public goods provision during the pandemic,” he said.
“Obviously, COVID vaccines are among the most important global public goods the world urgently needs now. But COVID vaccines are still in short supply in many developing countries,” said Huang.
He noted that China can play a more active role in improving the COVAX initiative, aside from what China has been doing in terms of providing greater vaccine access.
“Improving the COVAX initiative and providing the developing world with greater access to effective vaccines can probably be a first step for China to forge a new global norm around vaccine distribution across the globe,” he said.
In July, China unveiled a US$3 billion aid package to facilitate the pandemic response and economic recovery of developing nations.
