Sinovac Establishes Joint Venture To Expand Human-Use Vaccine Development, Manufacturing Capabilities

Sinovac Biotech has executed a joint venture (JV) agreement to establish Sinovac (Dalian) Vaccine Technology Co., Ltd (Sinovac Dalian). The JV will research, develop, produce and commercialise human-use vaccines. Sinovac will contribute its expertise and experience in developing and commercialising world-class vaccines; the other party will bring its land use rights, manufacturing facilities and established operating infrastructure.

Weidong Yin, chairman, president and CEO of Sinovac, said: “Sinovac Dalian brings to Sinovac a highly efficient platform to expand our manufacturing capacity, diversify our production capabilities and increase our operational scale. By leveraging the favorable investment environment, Dalian’s relatively low operating cost and its existing facilities, this JV enables Sinovac to cost effectively establish manufacturing platforms for live attenuated vaccines and vero cell cultured vaccines, thus adding another important manufacturing site for Sinovac’s vaccine products.

“The day-to-day operations of the JV will be led by Sinovac management as we continue to execute our business development strategy to advance and expand our development pipeline, and increase our manufacturing capacity to meet the growing domestic and international demand for human-use vaccines.”

Sinovac Dalian will be headquartered in Dalian, Liaoning Province and will occupy a total area of approximately 1,000,000sft. The building area is approximately 200,000sft, which is comprised of a nearly 60,000 square foot manufacturing and R&D facility. The campus currently contains two vaccine production lines – one for the vero cell cultured vaccines and one for live attenuated vaccines – and has capacity to house approximately six different production lines. In addition, the headquarters feature quality assurance and quality control facilities, research laboratory, office building and warehouse.

Based on current projections, Sinovac Dalian’s development pipeline is expected to be comprised of vaccines for rabies, mumps, varicella, and rubella. The Dalian-based facility has a designed annual manufacturing capacity of 20 million doses of vero cell cultured vaccines and 20 million doses of live attenuated vaccines.