(Yicai Global) Dec. 16 – BioNTech, a German developer of messenger RNA Covid-19 vaccines that successively obtained approvals for marketing in the UK and the US, has pledged to supply at least 100 million Covid-19 injections to the Chinese mainland in the next year, Chinese medicine producer Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group, which is a partner of Mainz-based BioNTech, announced today.

BioNTech will facilitate its supplies to China in different steps according to market demand, Fosun also explained in the statement, adding the first batch of orders will cover 50 million doses, which will require Fosun to lay a down payment of EUR125 million (USD152 million) by the end of this year and pay a further EUR125 million after these mRNA vaccines secure regulatory approval to hit the market. The rest will be settled after Fosun receives the vaccines.

Fosun Pharma inked the collaboration agreement with BioNTech this March to obtain the exclusive right to develop and commercialize the German biotechnology company’s mRNA Covid-19 vaccines in China.

BioNTech’s mRNA vaccines, however, had not yet been greenlighted for marketing by Chinese regulators, Fosun also noted in the statement, adding two inoculant candidates are undergoing the first-and second-stage clinical trials respectively in the Chinese mainland at present.

Fosun Pharma’s shares [SHA:600196] rose by 3.73 percent to about CNY56.78 (USD8.68) with corresponding market capitalization of CNY129.99 billion (USD22.1 billion) in late afternoon. The overall Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index grew 0.23 percent to 3,374.9 at the same time.

Editor: Ben Armour, Xiao Yi