(Reuters) – Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group said on Wednesday that BioNTech SE will supply at least 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, if approved, to mainland China next year.
China has not announced supply deals with Western drugmakers, which instead have partnered with private companies in the country.
Fosun Pharma will make an initial payment of 125 million euros ($151.84 million) by the end of the year for 50 million doses.
Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine has already received approval for emergency use in several countries, including the U.S., UK, and Singapore.
Fosun Pharma has brought two candidates of BioNTech’s vaccine into clinical trials in China. Neither has yet received approval from the medical regulator.
The companies have initiated a Phase 2 clinical trial of 960 participants for its vaccine candidate BNT162b2 in Jiangsu Province, China.
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(Reporting by Nikhil Kurian Nainan in Bengaluru and Roxanne Liu in Beijing; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
