(Yicai Global) Sept. 6 -- Shares of Kangtai Biological Products gained some lost ground after the Chinese vaccine maker said it has obtained a permit to produce British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine in Indonesia and Pakistan.

Kangtai's stock price [SHE: 300601] surged as much as 5.3 percent to CNY122 (USD18.90) intraday. But the shares are still more than 50 percent down from the time the two companies started cooperating on the Covid-19 vaccine for the first time more than a year ago.

AstraZeneca will support Kangtai in emergency use and market authorization of the adenovirus-based vaccine in certain aspects in the two populous Asian countries, the Shenzhen-based company said in a statement yesterday, without disclosing any financial details of the deal.

The license won’t contradict any agreements or arrangements between Kangtai and other parties, according to the Cambridge-headquartered partner.

In August 2020, the pair joined hands for the Chinese firm to produce AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine, jointly developed with the University of Oxford, in China's mainland to meet local demand.

In February, Kangtai completed a production base and said it is applying to register the vaccine in the country. The facility is expected to make 400 million doses per year, according to a person in charge of the factory.

This is not Kangtai's only product in this area. Last May, China’s drug regulator approved an inactivated Covid-19 vaccine Kangtai has developed independently, marking the sixth Covid-19 vaccine with an emergency use authorization in China.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi