By Brazil Stock Guide – Sinovac is looking to expand its international footprint through local manufacturing and technology transfer, a strategy that includes Brazil, where the Chinese vaccine maker plans to build its own production facility in the interior of São Paulo state.
The company has yet to decide which city will host the Brazilian plant.
Sinovac executives outlined the broader expansion strategy during the 27th Annual Meeting of the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN) in Beijing, which brings together vaccine manufacturers from developing countries.
Yin Weidong, Sinovac’s chairman and CEO, said the company wants to broaden access not only to vaccines themselves but also to the technologies needed to produce them.
Technology transfer, workforce training and the development of regional manufacturing capacity will be important in helping countries build their own research, development and production capabilities, Yin said.
The push marks a new phase in the international expansion of China’s vaccine industry, which scaled up sharply during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Chinese manufacturers, including Sinovac, supplied more than 2.3 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses to over 120 countries and international organizations, according to Yin.
The strategy is now moving beyond simply exporting finished doses.
Chinese industry representatives said at the meeting that overseas expansion could increasingly involve local manufacturing, technology transfer, clinical research and long-term relationships with governments and strategic partners.
In Brazil, Sinovac plans to establish its own manufacturing facility in the interior of São Paulo state. The location remains under evaluation.
The company also has a separate technology-transfer initiative in Brazil in partnership with the Paraná Institute of Technology, known as Tecpar. That project is distinct from Sinovac’s planned company-owned facility in São Paulo state.
China builds on manufacturing scale
Sinovac’s international push draws on the scale China’s vaccine industry has built over the past several decades.
China has more than 40 vaccine manufacturers, with annual production exceeding 1 billion doses of routine vaccines, according to figures presented at the meeting. Production topped 5 billion doses during the pandemic, while domestic manufacturers supply more than 95% of the vaccines used in China’s national immunization program.
Shen Hongbing, head of China’s National Disease Control and Prevention Administration and vice-minister of the National Health Commission, said joint production, technology transfer and workforce training could help expand vaccine manufacturing capacity across developing countries.
Innovation is also part of the strategy. Yin pointed to artificial intelligence as a technology that could be applied across research and development, manufacturing, immunization services and health communications.
Executives at the meeting also highlighted combination vaccines, new delivery methods, advanced adjuvants and the development of new vaccines for diseases with unmet medical needs as trends likely to shape the industry’s next phase.
Sinovac’s planned Brazilian plant would put the country squarely within the company’s push to expand manufacturing beyond China. The next key decision will be selecting the city in the interior of São Paulo state that will host the facility.
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