CHENGDU, China (Reuters) – China is likely to have produced 3 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of the year, a National Health Commission official said on Saturday.
Zheng Zhongwei, who also heads a team that coordinates the country’s COVID-19 vaccine development projects, made the remark during an industry event in the city of Chengdu in Sichuan province in southwest China. .
“In the second half of this year, we are able to meet our own demand,” Zheng said.
Although manufacturers are rapidly expanding production capacity, it is unclear whether production has increased so rapidly. Production tripled from February 1 to the end of March to 5 million doses per day, the government said it was the latest update.
Leading vaccine maker Sinovac Biotech has said it has doubled its annual production capacity to 2 billion doses after completing its third production plant.
The China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) also has a combined production capacity of at least 1.1 billion annually for two separate vaccines. The company said it intended to increase capacity to $ 3 billion, but did not set a time frame.
Sinopharm said on Friday it would be able to deliver 100 million COVID-19 vaccines from April.
Reporting by Roxanne Liu and David Stanway; Edited by Christian Schmollinger and William Mallard