CHENGDU, China (Reuters) – China is likely to have produced 3 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of the year, a National Health Commission official said on Saturday.
Zheng Zhongwei, who also leads a team coordinating the country’s COVID-19 vaccine development projects, made the comment at an industry event in Chengdu city in southwest China’s Sichuan province.
“In the second half of this year, we will be fully able to meet our own demand,” said Zheng.
Although manufacturers are rapidly expanding their production capacity, it is unclear whether production has increased so quickly. Production tripled from Feb. 1 to the end of March to 5 million doses per day, the government said in its most recent update.
Leading vaccine manufacturer Sinovac Biotech said this month that it had doubled its annual production capacity to 2 billion doses after the completion of its third manufacturing facility.
The China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) also has a combined annual production capacity of at least 1.1 billion for two separate vaccines. The company has said it wants to increase capacity to 3 billion, but has not specified a timetable.
Sinopharm said Friday it will be able to deliver 100 million COVID-19 vaccines per month from April.
Reporting by Roxanne Liu and David Stanway; Edited by Christian Schmollinger and William Mallard