(Yicai Global) June 6 -- Shares in CanSino Biologics advanced by as much as 6.4 percent today after the Chinese vaccine developer said it has terminated a 10-year deal with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to promote its meningococcal vaccine MCV4 that was just given the greenlight by China’s drug regulators in December last year.

CanSino’s Shanghai-traded shares [SHA:688185] were trading up 4.81 percent at CNY180.16 (USD27) as of 11:30 a.m. China time today. Earlier in the day they had hit CNY183. Its Hong Kong stock [HKG:6185] jumped 5.94 percent to trade at HKD78.45 (USD10).

The pair reached an amicable agreement to end the co-operation last weekend, the Tianjin-based company said yesterday without giving any reasons for the decision.

The halting of the deal may impact sales of MCV4 in the short term, but is not expected to have an adverse effect on the company’s operations and finances and will not damage shareholders’ interests, CanSino said.

The tie-up, reached in 2020, marked the first time that a Chinese vaccine maker would be responsible for research, development and production of a drug, while a multinational corporation would be in charge of promotion. At one point market players had speculated whether such a model could be applied to Covid-19 jabs.

CanSino has not generated any sales revenue from MCV4 to date and there are no outstanding payments due to New York-based Pfizer, it added.

Editor: Kim Taylor