Photo:VCG

About 11,500 doses of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine co-developed by German-based BioNTech and China's Fosun Pharma have arrived in Beijing and are expected to be made available in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang and Chengdu to provide vaccination for German nationals living in China, news site Thepaper reported on Thursday.

According to BioNTech, the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines arrived in the Chinese mainland on Wednesday and contains both the companies' Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent COVID-19 vaccine and the monovalent COVID-19 vaccine.

"We thank the Chinese and the German governments for their joint efforts and continuous support in helping us supply German expatriates living in China with our mono- and Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adpated bivalent mRNA COVID-19 vaccines," said Sean Marett, Chief Business and Commercial Officer at BioNTech in the company's press release.

Li Shengli, Executive President and Chief Growth Officer of Fosun Pharma said with the guidance and support of the relevant national authorities, the R&D and clinical trial of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in China have been executed rapidly.

BioNTech and Fosun Pharma announced a strategic collaboration on March 16 in 2020 to develop and commercialize COVID-19 vaccines based on BioNTech's mRNA technology platform in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao Special Administrative Region and the Taiwan region.

The mRNA COVID-19 vaccine has been granted full approval in Hong Kong in December, following emergency use authorization in January 2021, and special import authorizations in Macao in February 2021 and in the Taiwan region in July 2021.