Fosun Pharma (SHA: 600196; HK: 2196) and BioNTech agreed to allocate 10 million doses of their partnered mRNA COVID-19 vaccine to Hong Kong and Macau, once the vaccine is approved. In March, Fosun announced a $135 million agreement to partner the product in mainland China, though the announcement did not specify how many doses of the vaccine China would receive. Separately, BioNTech's partner in the US, Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), said it has signed up half the 30,000 volunteers expected to enroll in the Phase III trial. It expects to submit results to the US FDA in October or November.  

“So far, all data is satisfactory and processes are fast, and we’ve started clinical trials in China,” Guo Guangchang, chairman of the Fosun conglomerate, said in an interview with Bloomberg. “We will soon start a bridging study.”

According to Fosun Pharma CEO Yifang Wu, Fosun has dosed 72 volunteers in a Phase I trial in Jiangsu province. “Because the main purpose of the China trials is to show that the vaccines work among the Chinese population, the number of volunteers we need can be much smaller than the overseas trials done by Pfizer and BioNTech,” Wu said. Fosun has previously indicated it would enroll 144 patients in the trial.

RNA vaccines include an mRNA sequence that produce antigens on coronavirus-infected cells. The antigen is recognized by the immune system which can then fight them.

mRNA vaccines are expected to be safer than traditional vaccines because they do not carry any form of the virus, and they will continue to work even if the vaccine mutates slightly. However, so far, no mRNA has been approved for use, so as a class of anti-infectives, they are not as well known as more common vaccines.

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Disclosure: none.