Chinese drugmaker gets $500m boost to push Covid-19 vaccine

Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac has secured a $515m cash injection, as one of the country’s leading vaccine hopefuls looks to increase production and distribution of its Covid-19 vaccine once final-stage testing is concluded. Sino Biopharmaceutical, a Hong Kong-listed generic drugs group, said on Monday it had acquired a 15 per cent stake in Sinovac Life Sciences, the subsidiary of Sinovac that has developed a Covid-19 vaccine undergoing large-scale trials in Brazil, Pakistan, Indonesia and Chile. Sinovac’s vaccine — alongside two other candidates developed by state-run group Sinopharm — is a Chinese frontrunner to be sold worldwide.