COVAX Gets a Shot in the Arm From Chinese Vaccine Makers With a Half a Billion Doses Promised Over the Next Year

The ailing COVAX global vaccine alliance will get some badly-needed support from China’s two largest vaccine manufacturers. Both Sinovac and Sinopharm signed advance purchase agreements with COVAX on Monday that will include an immediate rush shipment of 110 million doses followed by an additional 400 million jabs delivered to the group over the next 12 months.

Jabs from both companies were approved for use by the World Health Organization earlier this year and will provide a badly-needed boost to the alliance that had counted on Indian manufacturers to provide the bulk of the vaccines that it planned to distribute to low and middle-income countries. That plan went awry when New Delhi halted all vaccine exports in a bid to contain the outbreak at home.