(Yicai Global) Dec. 15 -- Singapore recently signed an advance purchase agreement with Chinese vaccine maker Sinovac Biotech for Covid-19 vaccines, Singapore’s Lianhe Zaobao reported yesterday, but without detailing the number of shots to be supplied.

The Sinovac Biotech inoculants will arrive in batches next year, and Singapore is also in contact with other pharmaceutical companies, per the report.

Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech is promoting Phase III clinical trials of its inactivated vaccine CoronaVac against Covid-19 in Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey and Chile. Indonesia's state-owned pharma firm PT Bio Farma said this month that CoronaVac has proven 97 percent effective in early trials, and its ultimate efficacy rate will be determined next month.

The Sinovac Biotech jab was previously used in emergency inoculations against Covid-19 in Zhejiang in mid-October. On Dec. 7, Sinovac Biotech announced that it had obtained the results of Phase I/II clinical trials on an adult group and an elderly group in China, and started the Phase I/II clinical trials on a juvenile one.

Sinovac Biotech is expanding its production as these tests steadily advance. The firm’s Sinovac Life Sciences unit has secured over USD500 million from Sino Biopharmaceutical for further development, capacity expansion and manufacturing of its CoronaVac Covid-19 vaccine candidate, Sinovac Biotech announced on Dec. 7.

Sinovac Life Sciences has built and put into use a Covid-19 vaccine plant which is able to turn out 300 million vaccine doses annually, per the announcement. The company also plans to complete a second production line before year’s end and raise its annual output of CoronaVac to over 600 million doses.

Sinovac Biotech was China's first vaccine company to list in the US. Its shares [NASDAQ:SVA] rose 0.31 percent yesterday to USD6.47.

Editor: Ben Armour, Xiao Yi