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State Council's interagency task force briefing on promoting COVID-19 vaccination

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Reuters:

We have heard many times about production capacity, and are particularly concerned about the issue of output. What is the actual production volume of the four COVID-19 vaccines currently on the market in China? For example, what are the actual daily, weekly and monthly outputs? Or, how many have been produced so far? Also, in terms of these four vaccines, what is the difference between actual production output and designed production capacity? Why is there such a difference? Just now you mentioned some goals. What are the actual production plans for these four vaccines? How many doses of vaccine are actually planned to be produced, by certain specific times? Thank you.

Li Bin:

You've asked a combination of several questions. I'd like to invite Mr. Tian Yulong to introduce the relevant situations.

Tian Yulong:

Thank you for your questions. You are very professional and concerned about the issue of vaccine production. According to the overall deployment of the State Council's interagency task force, the MIIT has taken the lead in working with the NHC, the NMPA and other relevant departments to ensure the supply of COVID-19 vaccines. Your concerns are regarding production. At present, four vaccines have been granted conditional approval, including three inactivated vaccines from Sinopharm CNBG Beijing, Sinopharm CNBG Wuhan and the Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech, as well as a Chinese adenovirus vector vaccine from the Tianjin-based CanSino Biologics. These four companies have begun organizing mass production. Just now, Mr. Li Bin explained that we have completed more than 60 million vaccinations, so we have met the current supply and demand pretty well. You will have also seen our donations to other countries, with our exports receiving positive feedback — so, we have also supported international demand.

It appears that domestic vaccine production is still expanding. With the continuous release of production capacity, the output will gradually increase. This reflects China's institutional advantages, industrial mobilization capabilities, and enterprises' advantages in efficient organization. During the Spring Festival, vaccine enterprises worked overtime and raced against time to organize production at full capacity, which also reflects our people-centered philosophy. According to the current production plans, we have established a dynamic guarantee balance mechanism for production supply and demand. We must accurately measure demand and implement vaccinations step by step, so that the accurate connection between production and supply can be guaranteed. Our continuous release of vaccine output and production capacity at all stages throughout the year has met the needs at all stages. Therefore, we are still very confident, because China's industrial mobilization, emergency response capabilities and corporate capabilities of organizing production are highly efficient.

One thing particularly important is that vaccines are different from other anti-epidemic supplies and medicines, and it is crucial to ensure absolute quality and safety throughout the entire vaccine production chain and process. The production process is very complex, with many production steps and high technical content, and market access and supervision are also very strict. We and the drug regulation authorities have cooperated in ensuring quality and safety and every batch of vaccines must undergo a necessary period of production testing. During the period, safety must be ensured in every procedure, and measures like testing must be intensified. We must make safety and quality the bottom line in capacity release, production and supply. On this premise, our production capacity is constantly expanding. We and the health authorities have established a dynamic, precise and balanced mechanism for vaccine production and supply to meet vaccination demands, and I believe we will be able to complete our task successfully. Thank you.