By
Tolu Ajiboye
December 13th, 2023
Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Industrial Development received the acceptance notice of clinical trial application for the COVID-19 vaccine candidate BNT162b1 created by BioNTech.
BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX) stock price rose slightly in trading during the early hours but started its way down as the market opened today. All these changes occurred as the Chinese government had approved the company’s COVID-19 vaccine trials.
At the time of filing this report, BioNTech (BNTX) stock price was $76.17 (-2.35%).
The vaccine candidate is one of two that has been developed in partnership with Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE). Both partners recently received a “fast track” status from the United States Food and Drug Administration.
Vaccine Development Can Boost BioNTech (BNTX) Stock Price
Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceuticals said in a filing that trials should soon begin for its “BNT162b1” COVID-19 candidate. Pfizer and BioNTech had indicated promising results in early-stage trials of the candidate. The trials of 24 healthy individuals showed higher levels of antibodies than infected people. Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceuticals holds the exclusive license to develop and commercialize COVID-19 products within Hong Kong China, Macau, and Taiwan.
It is occurring as the COVID-19 vaccine race goes into full gear. There are several global attempts to discover a vaccine for the novel virus. The coronavirus has killed about half a million people and infected millions.
Before now, Chinese eight COVID-19 vaccine projects had moved out of the country. The trials for these projects are taking place outside China.
Shanghai Forsun Pharmaceuticals had resolved to pay about $85 million in licensing fees and invest $50 million in BioNTech (BNTEX). This move has been seen as strategic by pundits.
Fosun Pharma Is Well-Placed
Formerly known as Shanghai Fortune International, Fosun Pharma was involved in one of the largest Chinese corporate Indian acquisitions. There was a revised offer in 2017. The deal was worth $1.26 billion. The 74% acquisition of Indian Gland Pharma was completed in October 2017. It was after the approval of the Indian authorities.
Fosun Pharma had indicated that the Chinese National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) approved. The clinical trials will involve about 30,000 participants.
Sources say that Dr. Aimin Hui, Senior Vice President, President of Global R&D, and Chief Medical Officer of Fosun Pharma noted:
“Fosun Pharma’s Global R&D Center has been striving for a patient-centered and clinical-driven approach to the pandemic, and actively promoting the international collaboration with BioNTech to co-develop an mRNA vaccine against the COVID-19.”
Dr. Hui continued:
“We hope that the clinical trial will be initiated in China as soon as possible.”
The BNT162b1 vaccine candidate stands a good chance of winning the COVID-19 vaccine race.
It is dependent on the new trials. As others are racing to the finish line, it remains yet-to-be-seen which company is the clear leader.
Once there is a working vaccine, global attention will move to the logistics of delivering to the World’s population. It is something that will be of interest to companies like Fosun Pharma and its competitors.