China perseveres with mRNA COVID shot development amid Omicron, commercial uncertainty

China has spent over a year developing Pfizer-type COVID-19 vaccines that may even help it pivot from stringent 'zero-COVID' restrictions, but a changed market and the Omicron variant have muddied prospects before efficacy data has even been published. Still, China is unlikely to join the majority of countries in approving foreign-made vaccines based on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology before making its own, experts said, though a slowing vaccination drive at home and in some other nations and improved supply of approved vaccines have raised questions of viability.