By Fareeza Haniff in Beijing
The China National Pharmaceutical Group Corporation, known as Sinopharm, has provided over one million doses of the lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines to Caribbean countries and the company stands ready to provide more support if it is needed.
This is according to the company’s Chief Engineer Fu Qiang. He told journalists from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean on Wednesday that in addition to Guyana, the company provided vaccines to Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica and other countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
He reiterated the company’s commitment to the Caribbean, especially Guyana, where they are assisting with the construction of hospitals.
China was the first country to donate COVID-19 vaccines to Guyana. Some 20,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccines were shipped in early 2021 and the Guyana Government later purchased 100,000 more doses.
Foreign journalists who are on a six-month programme in China were given a guided tour of the pharmaceutical facility on Wednesday, including the three mega plants where the vaccines are manufactured.
Following the pandemic, Sinopharm decided to develop four world-leading COVID-19 diagnostic reagents, four special COVID-19 medicines, and independently developed four types of vaccines of three different technologies.
With the WHO stamp of approval and EU Good Manufacturing Practice certification, the company’s COVID-19 vaccines have been widely applauded for their effectiveness.
Sinopharm has the capacity to develop about five billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines on a yearly basis. Currently, the vaccines are being used in 119 countries and regions as well as international organizations, covering people of 196 nationalities.
The company has produced and supplied more than 3.5 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines around the world.
Zhu Jingjin, the President of Sinopharm’s Biological Products Division, told reporters that the company is also working on a specific vaccine to fight the Omicron strain of the coronavirus.
This “inactivated” vaccine has received local clinical approval.
“Sinopharm is the most comprehensive bio-pharmaceutical enterprise with the most comprehensive products, the largest scale and the strongest comprehensive strength in Asia, integrating scientific research, production, sales and postgraduate training…and is the leading force in China’s bio-pharmaceutical industry,” Zhu said.
He reiterated China’s commitment to the world to “work together to overcome the epidemic and build a community of human health”.
According to Zhu, “Sinopharm will continue to promote the research and development of vaccines, make every effort to ensure production and supply, deepen international cooperation, and make new contributions to making vaccines a global public product and building a community of human health.”
In the recently published list of 2022 Fortune Global 500, Sinopharm is placed in the 80th position, making it to the top 100 list and becoming the world’s largest pharmaceutical group.
In 2018, the group registered an operating revenue of 396.8 billion yuan and a total profit of 19.2 billion yuan, which increased to 488.4 billion and 20.8 billion in 2019, 532.8 billion and 25.6 billion in 2020, and 701.7 billion and 108.9 billion in 2021, breaking its own records.
