Germany’s BioNTech to establish joint venture to produce vaccines in China

German pharmaceutical company BioNTech will bring its own developed vaccine to China. BioNTech will establish a joint venture with its Chinese partner Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group to produce the BionTech vaccine on a large scale in China.

According to German newspaper “Handelsblatt” and Deutsche Telekom, Mainz-based BioNTech will establish a joint venture with Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group to produce BioNTech’s new crown vaccine in China. The news was reported in the Chinese media on Sunday. With $200 million in assets invested in the joint venture, the company will be able to produce one billion doses of the vaccine. Fosun will thus become the sole agent for BionTech in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau. According to the Chinese side, the capital invested by the Chinese partner will be US$100 million. Each side will have a 50-50 share of the joint venture.

BionTech vaccines are not currently licensed in China. Media reports say that the Chinese side will approve the BionTech vaccine in July. China itself wants to become an important supplier of anti-neo-crown vaccines in the world, and so far has not approved any foreign vaccines to enter the country. Experts speculate that China will link allowing foreign vaccines into the country to Chinese vaccines entering the U.S. and Europe. Last week, China’s national vaccine, Neocon, was granted emergency use permission by the WHO. The European Medicines Agency is currently approving the Chinese Kexing vaccine.

Business is booming for BionTech and its U.S. partner Pfizer. BionTech will also produce vaccines in Singapore, and on Monday raised its sales for the year by about a quarter, to 12.4 billion euros, according to German TV One and German newspaper Handelsblatt. Pfizer also raised its own turnover.