Page 50 - 2021 White Paper
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1 White Paper on the Business Environment in China
been created for companies and researchers China announced that it had joined Covid-19
to rush their work. Many people see China “as Vaccine Global Access (COVAX), the collaborative
mishandling the early stages of the epidemic ”, effort by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, together
but there is a sense that if they come up with a with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness
vaccine, then they’re saving the world and can Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health
exonerate themselves in the eyes of the public, Organization (WHO), which aimed to provide two
says Elanah Uretsky, a medical anthropologist at billion doses of vaccine to the most vulnerable
Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, people and health-care workers especially in
whose research into China’s global role in public poor countries. Some 80 wealthy ‘self-funding’
health has brought her into contact with scientists countries committed to support the initiative,
working on Covid-19. The concept that science with the notable exception of the US. Chinese
can boost China’s public image is fundamentally vaccine makers developed four of the roughly
baked into politics. In China, science and dozen leading candidate vaccines that are in the
academia are of great interest and importance to final stages of testing worldwide. No vaccine had
the ruling party and its mission of strengthening yet completed the crucial phase III trials that are
the state. In December, China’s coronavirus task needed to firmly establish safety and efficacy.
force announced it had 13 vaccines involved in But that didn’t stop hundreds of thousands of
clinical trials, and the World Health Organization’s people in China and abroad being injected with
tracker lists 11 being developed there. Two one of the four Chinese vaccine candidates under
of those were developed by the state-owned policies known as emergency-use authorization.
enterprise Sinopharm. A third is being made by Scientists said the country’s drug regulator, which
the private pharmaceutical company CanSino is part of the Ministry of Health, needed to wait for
Biologics in Tianjin, in collaboration with military robust trial data that showed the vaccines were
backed researchers. Beijing-based firm Sinovac safe and effective before granting vaccines full
Biotech is developing the fourth candidate, and approval. In an e-mail to Nature, Wu said that the
the fifth comes from a collaboration between health ministry will await the results of large trials
Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biologic Pharmacy and before approving them for sale. “Until then, there
the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of are still uncer tainties,” she said. Outside China,
Microbiology (Murphy). expectations were high that a successful Chinese
vaccine would soon be available. China’s leader,
China made bold promises in the race for a Xi Jinping, told the World Health Assembly in May
coronavirus vaccine in October 2020. A Chinese that its vaccines would be a “Global public good”,
health official publicly pledged that an effective and the list of countries with which China had
coronavirus vaccine would be available by the promised to share its vaccines continued to grow.
end of the year. The country also committed Government leaders, including Xi and Premier Li
to sharing its vaccines with more than a dozen Keqiang, publicly pledged to make Chinese vaccine
nations, particularly low-income countries that accessible to the Philippines, Cambodia, Burma,
it has close ties with. Some scientists, however, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, as well as African and
questioned whether the country would be able to Latin American countries. Chinese vaccine makers
produce enough doses to meet its international also had agreements with the countries where
commitments, and if deals with individual vaccines were being tested (Cyranoski).
countries are the best way to ensure equitable
vaccine distribution. Wu Guizhen, the chief The primary worry from the general public
biosafety expert at China’s Center for Disease was that vaccinations would give people who've
Control and Prevention in Beijing, told Chinese had them a sense of invincibility that was not
state media that two vaccines co-developed by warranted – and that could help spread the virus.
Shanghai pharmaceutical group Sinopharm and A vaccine may work to prevent bad outcomes from
other groups would be available in November infection, but it may not prevent infection itself
or December. The vaccines were being tested in some cases. But among those in China given
in countries including the United Arab Emirates, preferential access to the experimental vaccine,
Bahrain, Peru and Argentina. In the same month, the unorthodox approach was a sign of China's
50
been created for companies and researchers China announced that it had joined Covid-19
to rush their work. Many people see China “as Vaccine Global Access (COVAX), the collaborative
mishandling the early stages of the epidemic ”, effort by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, together
but there is a sense that if they come up with a with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness
vaccine, then they’re saving the world and can Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health
exonerate themselves in the eyes of the public, Organization (WHO), which aimed to provide two
says Elanah Uretsky, a medical anthropologist at billion doses of vaccine to the most vulnerable
Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, people and health-care workers especially in
whose research into China’s global role in public poor countries. Some 80 wealthy ‘self-funding’
health has brought her into contact with scientists countries committed to support the initiative,
working on Covid-19. The concept that science with the notable exception of the US. Chinese
can boost China’s public image is fundamentally vaccine makers developed four of the roughly
baked into politics. In China, science and dozen leading candidate vaccines that are in the
academia are of great interest and importance to final stages of testing worldwide. No vaccine had
the ruling party and its mission of strengthening yet completed the crucial phase III trials that are
the state. In December, China’s coronavirus task needed to firmly establish safety and efficacy.
force announced it had 13 vaccines involved in But that didn’t stop hundreds of thousands of
clinical trials, and the World Health Organization’s people in China and abroad being injected with
tracker lists 11 being developed there. Two one of the four Chinese vaccine candidates under
of those were developed by the state-owned policies known as emergency-use authorization.
enterprise Sinopharm. A third is being made by Scientists said the country’s drug regulator, which
the private pharmaceutical company CanSino is part of the Ministry of Health, needed to wait for
Biologics in Tianjin, in collaboration with military robust trial data that showed the vaccines were
backed researchers. Beijing-based firm Sinovac safe and effective before granting vaccines full
Biotech is developing the fourth candidate, and approval. In an e-mail to Nature, Wu said that the
the fifth comes from a collaboration between health ministry will await the results of large trials
Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biologic Pharmacy and before approving them for sale. “Until then, there
the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of are still uncer tainties,” she said. Outside China,
Microbiology (Murphy). expectations were high that a successful Chinese
vaccine would soon be available. China’s leader,
China made bold promises in the race for a Xi Jinping, told the World Health Assembly in May
coronavirus vaccine in October 2020. A Chinese that its vaccines would be a “Global public good”,
health official publicly pledged that an effective and the list of countries with which China had
coronavirus vaccine would be available by the promised to share its vaccines continued to grow.
end of the year. The country also committed Government leaders, including Xi and Premier Li
to sharing its vaccines with more than a dozen Keqiang, publicly pledged to make Chinese vaccine
nations, particularly low-income countries that accessible to the Philippines, Cambodia, Burma,
it has close ties with. Some scientists, however, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, as well as African and
questioned whether the country would be able to Latin American countries. Chinese vaccine makers
produce enough doses to meet its international also had agreements with the countries where
commitments, and if deals with individual vaccines were being tested (Cyranoski).
countries are the best way to ensure equitable
vaccine distribution. Wu Guizhen, the chief The primary worry from the general public
biosafety expert at China’s Center for Disease was that vaccinations would give people who've
Control and Prevention in Beijing, told Chinese had them a sense of invincibility that was not
state media that two vaccines co-developed by warranted – and that could help spread the virus.
Shanghai pharmaceutical group Sinopharm and A vaccine may work to prevent bad outcomes from
other groups would be available in November infection, but it may not prevent infection itself
or December. The vaccines were being tested in some cases. But among those in China given
in countries including the United Arab Emirates, preferential access to the experimental vaccine,
Bahrain, Peru and Argentina. In the same month, the unorthodox approach was a sign of China's
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