Gov't orders boost vaccine makers
- Source: Global Times
- [08:25 October 29 2009]
- Comments
A woman checks the first batch of H1N1 vaccine in the center for disease control and prevention in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province last week. Altogether 90,000 doses of H1N1 vaccine were distributed to Yangzhou for free. Photo: CFP
By Chen Yang
Domestic vaccine companies are benefiting from the government's surging orders for A (H1N1) vaccines, but analysts warn their performance is directly related to the spread of the flu.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has ordered over 42 million doses of vaccines from seven domestic producers since Monday, including more than 11 million from Henan-based Hualan Biological, 5.19 million from Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech, and around 3 million from Beijing-based Tiantan Biological. All the orders are due for delivery by December 12.
A total of 26 million doses will be delivered by the end of October, and another 100 million doses will be ordered by the end of this year, said Deng Haihua, spokesman of the Ministry of Health, at a September press conference.
The 126 million doses of the vaccine purchased by the government will cover about 10 percent of the country's population, said Guo Fanli, an analyst at Shenzhen Zhongzhe Investment Consultant (SZIC), adding that this rate is still lower than the 30 percent in developed countries including the US.
