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

Chinese drugmakers agree to supply more than half a billion vaccines to COVAX The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) said on Monday it had signed two advance purchase agreements with Chinese drugmakers Sinopharm and Sinovac to provide up to 550 million COVID-19 vaccines to the COVAX programme. Emma Farge Reuters

GENEVA, July 12 (Reuters) - The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) said on Monday it had signed two advance purchase agreements with Chinese drugmakers Sinopharm and Sinovac to provide up to 550 million COVID-19 vaccines to the COVAX programme.

The new deals include up to 170 million doses of the Sinopharm shot and up to 380 million shots of the Sinovac vaccine, 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 variant is posing a rising risk to health systems, will begin to make 110 million doses immediately available to participants of the COVAX Facility, with options for additional doses," GAVI said.

GAVI, which runs the global vaccine sharing scheme COVAX with the World Health Organization (WHO) did not immediately provide details of which countries would receive the doses. ...