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 China has four locally developed COVID-19 vaccines approved for
public use and pledged earlier to supply 10 million doses to COVAX
without specifying the time frame of delivery. CanSinoBIO, Sinovac
Biotech Ltd and China National Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd (Sinopharm)
have applied to join the initiative.
Pierre Morgon, senior vice president at CanSinoBIO, said the firm
made the proposal in December to supply vaccines between late 2021
and the end of 2022.
"We are happy to go beyond 2022 if there was still an expectation to
do so," he told Reuters in an interview, adding it made its offer at
a middle single digit U.S. dollar per dose.
"I can't tell you the exact number, but I can tell you, it's a very
competitive price," Morgon said.
The offering to COVAX, which is backed by the World Health
Organization (WHO), is the lowest price in the "tiered pricing
mechanism" that CanSinoBIO uses in markets outside China, where
richer countries are subject to higher prices.
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 There is a more than threefold
factor difference between the highest price
offer and the lowest, Morgon said.
Its vaccine, jointly developed with China's
military research institute, is approved for use
in China, Pakistan, Hungary and Mexico.
The three Chinese vaccine makers are still
awaiting decisions on whether they can be
included in the WHO's Emergency Use Listing, a
prerequisite to join COVAX.
(Reporting by Roxanne Liu and Ryan Woo; Editing
by Miyoung Kim and Christopher Cushing)
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