Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine becomes China’s first foreign vaccine

Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine becomes China's first foreign vaccine

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The first batch of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by the American Pfizer and the German BioNTech was sent to China. It became the first foreign vaccine to be approved by a Chinese regulator. About the first delivery today, December 21, reported at the press office of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Last week it became known that the Chinese authorities gave permission for the use of this vaccine, before that only local drugs were allowed in the country. The approval for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was given with great restrictions: only German citizens living in China can be vaccinated with this drug, in total there are about 20 thousand people living there. The German government said it was in talks to allow other foreigners in China to have access to the vaccine.

In China, they vaccinate with nine local preparations. However, none of them have been updated to deal with more infectious new strains of COVID-19, while pharmaceutical companies Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have released boosters that should be more effective in fighting new variants. BioNTech had previously entered into an agreement with the Chinese pharmaceutical company Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical to gain access to the local market, but the decision remained with the regulator, and the process slowed down.

How China is fighting the coronavirus – in the material “Kommersant” “Lockdowns are locked in quarantine”.

Yana Rozhdestvenskaya