Zhang Yuntao: China's vaccine market is growing rapidly The share of Class II vaccines exceeds that of Class I vaccines

China News Finance, December 30 (Reporter Zhang Ni) Zhang Yuntao, chief scientist and vice president of China National Pharmaceutical Group China Biologics, said at the 2021 annual meeting of China New Finance and the online cloud summit on the 30th that in the past two years, the growth rate of China's vaccine market is much higher than the growth rate of the global market, and China's inactivated vaccines are at the forefront of the world.

Zhang Yuntao, Chief Scientist and Vice President of Sinopharm China Biologics

Zhang Yuntao introduced that the global vaccine market was in a steady development process before the new crown, with an annual growth rate of about 3.6%. The Chinese market is unique in the world and is in a period of prosperity, with China's vaccine market share reaching nearly 60 billion yuan in 2020, an increase of 44% over 2019 and an average annual increase of 12%, far higher than the growth rate of the global vaccine market.

In addition, in 2020, China's vaccine market has also undergone a turning point - the overall use level of class II vaccines exceeds that of class II vaccines, accounting for about 51%, and before that, the market share of class I vaccines was greater than that of class II vaccines.

"This is a landmark achievement, and I personally predict that for quite some time to come, the proportion of Class II vaccines in China will continue to exceed that of Class I vaccines."

Zhang Yuntao said that at present, in the entire biomedical field, there is still a certain gap between China and the world, but in the field of vaccines, the gap between China and foreign countries is the smallest, so China's new crown vaccine research and development has always been in the first international phalanx. Technically, most of the technologies are synchronized between China and the international community, and there is only a slight gap between China and foreign countries in terms of technology such as adjuvants or some cell mechanisms for administration.

He said that from the perspective of new crown vaccine research and development, the world has gathered the largest force for vaccine research and development for the first time in history, and there are about 300 research and development teams in the research and development of new crown vaccines, and 137 have entered the clinic. A total of 26 vaccines in China have entered clinical research, more than 100 vaccines have been developed in the clinical line, and the technical routes for China to develop new crown vaccines mainly include inactivated vaccines, viral vector vaccines, recombinant protein vaccines, nucleic acid vaccines and live attenuated vaccines.

"In the past year to two years, China's inactivated vaccines have been at the forefront of the world." Zhang Yuntao analyzed that there are objective reasons for China's choice of inactivated vaccines, on the one hand, the urgent needs of the epidemic, on the other hand, it has a mature technical platform, the advantages of scale, and the precipitation and accumulation of technology.

He stressed that this time China's vaccine research and development can be at the forefront of the world, fast and good, thanks to many reasons, including the advantages of the national system, the dedication of scientific researchers, the technical accumulation of mature platforms in the past, and a strong review and approval policy. (End)