Asian Tech Press (Aug 24) -- Fosun Pharma has sells over $77 million of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in the first half of the year.

Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co., Ltd. ("Fosun Pharma", 02196: HK) announced its semi-annual earnings on the evening of August 23, achieving operating income of 16.952 billion yuan ($2.63 billion) in the first half of the year, an increase of 20.85% year-on-year. Among them, the COVID-19 vaccine contributed a lot of profits.

Fosun Pharma reported in the first half of 2021 that the company's mRNA COVID-19 vaccine Fubitai, developed in cooperation with Germany's BioNTech and America-based Pfizer Inc., achieved revenue of more than 500 million yuan ($77.44 million).

As of August 20, the vaccine was administered in China's Hong Kong and Macau, China, with 4.314 million doses and 87,000 doses, respectively, for a total of 4.401 million doses.

In addition to the vaccination programs in Hong Kong and Macau, Fosun Pharma also signed sales agreements with TSMC, Foxconn, YongLin Foundation and Tzu Chi Foundation in July for a total of 15 million doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.

Fosun Pharma disclosed in its earnings report that Fubitai is in Phase II clinical trials in mainland China and the related work is progressing in an orderly manner. Once an approval in China is granted, Fosun Pharma and BioNTech will rapidly promote the local production of the vaccine in China, making it a localized mRNA vaccine.

According to the latest news, the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine was officially approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

BioNTech, Fosun Pharma's global R&D partner, announced on Monday that the FDA approved a biologics license application (BLA) for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use in people aged 16 years and older to prevent COVID-19 disease.

This is the first COVID-19 vaccine to receive formal FDA approval and the first officially approved COVID-19 vaccine in the world with complete Phase III data.

(US$1 = 6.4566 yuan)