New Abu Dhabi Plant to Produce COVID-19 Vaccine From China's Sinopharm

Gulf

March 29th, 5:27am

Asharq Al-Awsat

FILE PHOTO: A signage of Sinopharm is seen at the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), following the COVID-19 outbreak, in Beijing, China September 5, 2020. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang

A new pharmaceutical plant in Abu Dhabi will start making a COVID-19 vaccine from Chinese pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm later this year under a joint venture between Sinopharm and Abu Dhabi-based technology company Group 42 (G42). The plant, which is being built in the Khalifa Industrial Zone of Abu Dhabi (KIZAD), will eventually have a production capacity of 200 million doses a year with three filling lines and five automated packaging lines, a statement from the joint venture said on Monday. The vaccine will be called Hayat-Vax when manufactured in the United Arab Emirates, but is the same BiBP inactivated vaccine that has been administered in the UAE since it was approved by authorities in December, Reuters reported. Production of Hayat-Vax has already begun in the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah under a deal between G42 and Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries PSC. That production line has an initial capacity of 2 million doses per month. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday completed a two-day official visit to the UAE, saying Beijing wanted to work with the UAE on producing affordable COVID-19 vaccines. G42, an artificial intelligence and cloud computing company, handled Phase III late-stage clinical trials of the Sinopharm vaccine in the UAE and the wider region.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2887641/new-abu-dhabi-plant-produce-covid-19-vaccine-chinas-sinopharm