Shanghai based Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd on Wednesday announced that it will buy at least 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine from Germany's BioNTech SE for an explicit use in mainland China next year if the vaccine receives approval. China is vigorously developing its own Covid-19 vaccine candidates and ramping up production facilities, but local firms have also been partnering with foreign developers to supply the world's most populous country, China. 

Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group said its group company had entered into an agreement with the German firm BioNTech aimed at ensuring "an adequate supply" of vaccines in China, and the company added that it will make an initial payment of 125 million euros ($152 million) before year-end for 50 million doses. Pfizer and BioNTech's mRNA vaccine has already been approved for emergency use in countries such as the US, the UK and Singapore. 

China has granted emergency-use approval to two candidate vaccines from state-backed Sinopharm and one from Sinovac Biotech Ltd. It has approved a fourth, from CanSino Biologics Inc, for military use. Fosun Pharma is involved in two BioNTech candidate COVID-19 vaccines into clinical trials in China and is yet to receive regulatory approval for both the candidates. Fosun Pharma is majority-owned by Fosun International, a Chinese conglomerate that owns France-based resort giant Club Med and travel firm Thomas Cook. 

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