A scinetist is doing research on a vaccine against COVID-19 in Shanghai.Photo:Yang Hui/GT

The collaboration between German BioNTech and US drugmaker Pfizer on the development of a COVID-19 vaccine, is not an attempt of the US to decouple from China, as Chinese pharmaceutical giant Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) has signed an exclusive deal with BioNTech to develop a vaccine in China. 

Earlier, BioNTech announced a partnership with Fosun. Pfizer's agreement with BioNTech, therefore, did not include China, according to a statement that Pfizer sent to the Global Times on Wednesday evening.

A Fosun subsidiary on Sunday obtained exclusive permission from BioNTech to develop and commercialize mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines, Fosun told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The two companies will collaborate to conduct clinical trials in China, Fosun said. BioNTech will supply the mRNA vaccine for clinical trials from Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facilities in Europe.

"We see this collaboration as an important step in our global efforts to expedite the development of mRNA vaccines to prevent COVID-19 infection. Fosun shares our commitment to move rapidly to address the COVID-19 outbreak and brings deep development experience and an extensive network to the pharmaceutical market in China," said BioNTech Founder and CEO Ugur Sahin.

Under the deal, Fosun will pay about $85 million in licensing fees to BioNTech, as well as a sales commission equal to 35 percent of the product's annual gross profits during the agreed sales commission period. 

Following the Chinese firm's cooperation with BioNTech, US pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced on Tuesday that it had agreed to co-develop and distribute a potential mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine with BioNTech. The potential vaccine is known as BNT162 and will enter clinical trials in late April. 

China is excluded from the deal, as the statement outlined in the press release by Pfizer.

On Tuesday, BioNTech's shares soared 66.5 percent on NASDAQ following the closure of the deal. 

"We are committed to providing patients in China, as well as globally, access to high-quality medicines and vaccines," Pfizer said in its Wednesday's statement to the Global Times.

The virus knows no borders, and international cooperation is the right way to fight the epidemic, said Wei Jigang, a research fellow with the Development Research Center of the State Council.

"Vaccines and protective materials are meant to save people. They have a commercial nature, but it also a social nature," Wei said. "What we are talking about now is connectivity and a community with a shared future in which all countries have to work together to play to each other's strengths."


Newspaper headline: German-US vaccine cooperation doesn’t signal decoupling