Egypt will start to produce its first 2 million doses of the Chinese Sinovac coronavirus vaccine in June, Health Minister Hala Zayed said Sunday, under agreements Egypt signed with China last month.
This is part of 40 million Sinovav doses scheduled to be produced in the first year according to the agreements, Zayed told a press conference at the Egyptian Holding Company for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA).
The minister said Egypt will receive the first shipment of the Sinovac material required for producing the final product on 18 May.
The local end-product will then undergo assessment by the Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA) for few weeks before they become available.
VACSERA and the Sinovac biopharmaceutical company signed two agreements on 21 April to manufacture the vaccine so as to cover the country’s vaccination needs and also allow Egypt to export excess doses to Africa.
As per the first agreement, Sinovac will provide VACSERA the know-how and technical assistance for manufacturing the COVID-19 vaccine in Egypt.
The second agreement stipulates that Sinovac gives VACSERA the license to manufacture, re-pack and pack the COVID-19 vaccine in VACSERA facilities. The vaccine will be produced in the VACSERA factories.
Zayed said the locally produced Sinovac vaccine will be dubbed Sinovac-Vacsera and will have the “Made in Egypt” label.
She noted that it will later be fully manufactured in Egypt after implementing the agreement on transferring the manufacturing technology.
Like the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, Sinovac is an inactivated virus vaccine, Zayed said.
Source: Al-Ahram Online
