Sinopharm chief says COVID-19 vaccine will cost less than $145 for 2-dose regimen

The head of China’s state-owned Sinopharm has put forward a general price range for the group’s two inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidates now in late-stage development—and it's quite a bit higher than the amounts other shot makers have quoted so far. “An inactivated vaccine won’t be priced too high,” Sinopharm Chairman Liu Jingzhen told state media Guangming Daily (Chinese). “It’s expected to cost a couple hundred yuan for one shot, and it would be less than 1,000 yuan ($145) for two doses.” It’s not immediately clear what price Liu was referring to—the out-of-pocket cost or list price. And it’s not yet certain whether Beijing will help cover some of the costs for a pandemic vaccine developed by a state-run company.