China National Pharmaceutical Group Corporation (CNPGC), commonly referred to as Sinopharm, is a Chinese
state-owned enterprise. The corporation was the indirect major shareholder of publicly traded companies
Sinopharm Group (, via a 51–49 joint venture, Sinopharm Industrial Investment, with
Fosun Pharmaceutical
Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co., Ltd. (trade name: Fosun Pharma) is a Chinese pharmaceutical company. It is mostly owned by Fosun International.
As of 2018, the A shares of the company is a constituent of SSE 180 Index as well as it ...
), (, mostly via Sinopharm Group Hongkong Co., Ltd.),
Shanghai Shyndec Pharmaceutical (, via a wholly owned research institute based in Shanghai), and
Beijing Tiantan Biological Products (, via China National Biotec Group).
China National Pharmaceutical Group was supervised by the
.
Sinopharm was ranked 109th in the 2021
Fortune Global 500
The ''Fortune'' Global 500, also known as Global 500, is an annual ranking of the top 500 corporations worldwide as measured by revenue. The list is compiled and published annually by ''Fortune'' magazine.
Methodology
Until 1989, it listed onl ...
list.
History
Sinopharm was founded as China National Pharmaceutical Group Corporation () on November 26, 1998, as a holding company for China National Pharmaceutical Corporation, China National Pharmaceutical Industry Corporation (), China National Pharmaceutical Foreign Trade Corp. () and China National Medical Device (). In 2009 it was merged with China National Biotec Group ().
Its subsidiary Wuhan Institute of Biological Products was fined for selling 400,520 ineffective
DPT vaccines in November 2017.
COVID-19 vaccines
The Sinopharm BIBP COVID-19 vaccine, also known as BBIBP-CorV,
the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine,
or BIBP vaccine,
is one of two
inactivated virus COVID-19 vaccines developed by
Sinopharm. It completed
Phase III trials
The phases of clinical research are the stages in which scientists conduct experiments with a health intervention to obtain sufficient evidence for a process considered effective as a medical treatment. For drug development, the clinical phases ...
in
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
,
Bahrain
Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
,
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...
,
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
, Peru, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with over 60,000 participants.
BBIBP-CorV shares similar technology with CoronaVac and BBV152, other inactivated virus vaccines for COVID-19.
Peer-reviewed results published in JAMA of Phase III trials in United Arab Emirates and
Bahrain
Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...
showed BBIBP-CorV 78.1% effective against symptomatic cases and 100% against severe cases (21 cases in vaccinated group vs. 95 cases in placebo group).
In December 2020, the UAE previously announced interim results showing 86% efficacy.
While mRNA vaccines like the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and mRNA-1273 showed higher efficacy of over 90%, those present distribution challenges for some nations as they require deep-freeze facilities and trucks. BIBP-CorV could be transported and stored at normal refrigerated temperatures.
BBIBP-CorV is being used in vaccination campaigns by certain countries in Asia,
Africa,
South America,
and Europe.
Sinopharm expects to produce one billion doses of BBIBP-CorV in 2021.
On 7 May 2021, the World Health Organization approved the vaccine for emergency use
and Sinopharm later signed purchase agreements for 170 million doses from COVAX.
The similarly named Sinopharm WIBP COVID-19 vaccine is also an inactivated virus vaccine.
See also
* CanSino Biologics
* Sinovac
References
External links
*
{{authority control
Government-owned companies of China
Holding companies of China
Pharmaceutical companies of China
Companies based in Beijing
Chinese companies established in 1998
COVID-19 vaccine producers