(Yicai Global) Oct. 20 -- Shares in China National Medicines Corp. surged by the exchange-imposed limit today after a sister company under state-owned pharmaceutical giant China National Pharmaceutical Group, also known as Sinopharm, said that a research unit has isolated the monkeypox virus and begun vaccine development.

The share price of China National Medicines, which is Sinopharm’s listed arm, [SHA:600511] closed up 4.6 percent at CNY26.98 (USD3.73) today. Earlier in the day it soared 10 percent to hit CNY28.36.

Wuhan Biological Products Research Institute has isolated the monkeypox virus from clinical samples and started vaccine research, China National Biotec Group said on its WeChat account today.

It is a big step in the world’s fight against the latest viral outbreak. There is no monkeypox vaccine available in China yet. And most of the world is using the Jynneous vaccine developed by Denmark’s Bavarian Nordic, which is also used to protect against smallpox.

Monkeypox originates from primates in the rainforests of central Africa and is transmitted by contact with bodily fluids from an infected person although human-to-human transmission is rare. Symptoms are similar to those of smallpox, but less severe, and include fever, aches and a rash of pus-filled boils.

The World Health Organization declared monkeypox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on July 23. As of yesterday, 75,141 monkeypox cases had been reported in more than 100 countries. The first imported monkeypox case was found on the Chinese mainland on Sept. 16.

A number of Chinese firms, including Shanghai ZJ Bio-Tech and Dian Diagnostics Group, have been supplying monkeypox detection sets to the world. The test kits of more than 30 Chinese companies had obtained European Union’s CE certification as of September.

Editor: Kim Taylor