China Drug Maker’s Shares Soar On COVID-19 Vaccine Pact With AstraZeneca

Shares in China drug maker Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products soared by their 10% daily upward limit at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Friday on word that it reached an agreement with AstraZeneca to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines.

Kangtai signed a licensing pact with AstraZeneca to produce its COVID-19 vaccine AZD1222 in mainland China. Kangtai will annually make at least 100 million doses of the vaccine co-developed with Oxford University by the end of the year, an amount that’s expected to rise to at least 200 million doses by the end of 2021, AstraZeneca said, according to a note by S&P Global.

Kangtai, whose products include vaccines, closed at 235.91 yuan; the stock has soared by more than 250% in the past 12 months.

Kangtai is led by China entrepreneur Du Weimin.  Du, 56, has a fortune worth $6 billion on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List today, and ranked No. 14 on a list of China’s richest in healthcare published this month by Forbes China, the Chinese-language edition of Forbes.

AstraZeneca, a European drug giant considered a global leader in the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, has entered into manufacturing agreements elsewhere to ramp up production.  

Among other Chinese companies involved in the vaccine scramble, Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical, controlled by billionaire Guo Guangchang, and BioNTech of German said on Aug. 5 that the first 72 participants have already been dosed with candidate BNT162b1 following approval by Chinese regulatory authority National Medical Products Administration, or NMPA. The trial is part of BioNTech’s global development program.

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@rflannerychina