Chinese drugmakers agree to supply more than half a billion vaccines to COVAX

The Global Alliance for Vaccinesand Immunization (GAVI) said on Monday it had signed two advancepurchase agreements with Chinese drugmakers Sinopharm andSinovac to provide up to 550 million COVID-19 vaccines to theCOVAX program.

The new deals include up to 170 million doses of theSinopharm shot and up to 380 million shots of the Sinovacvaccine, to be provided through to the middle of 2022, the statement said.Sinovac confirmed the agreement in a statement.

"The agreements, which come at a time when the delta variantis posing a rising risk to health systems, will begin to make110 million doses immediately available to participants of theCOVAX Facility, with options for additional doses," GAVI said.

GAVI, which runs the global vaccine sharing program COVAXwith the World Health Organization (WHO) did not immediatelyprovide details of which countries would receive the doses.

Deliveries can start quickly because both vaccines havealready been granted emergency use listing by the WHO, GAVIChief Executive Officer Seth Berkley said.

COVAX, which distributes vaccines to poorer countries, hasstruggled to meet its early commitments amid Indian exportdisruptions, forcing many countries to freeze their inoculationprograms in their early phases.

However, its latest supply forecast shows that the programis on track to deliver more than twobillion doses by early 2022.The vaccines by Sinovac and Sinopharm join nine other vaccinesand vaccine candidates already in the program including thoseby AstraZeneca and Moderna.

Some countries including Thailand and Indonesia which usedSinovac as a first dose are switching to other shots for thesecond dose to increase protection against COVID-19.

GAVI did not immediately respond to a request for commentabout whether it had concerns about the vaccine's efficacy.

The WHO said on June 1 when it approved Sinovac's shot thatresults showed it prevented symptomatic disease in 51 per centof thosevaccinated and prevented severe COVID-19 illness and hospitalization in100 per centof the studied population.

The Sinopharm vaccine has an estimated efficacy of 79 per centforall age groups, the WHO said in early May when it approved theshot.