AstraZeneca has signed a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines manufacturing deal on Monday with Chinese biopharmaceutical firm CanSino Biologics.
The framework agreement didn’t include the value of the 10-year deal.
On its website, CanSino touted the deal as a significant endorsement of the company’s capabilities that would benefit the expansion of its mRNA manufacturing platform.
AstraZeneca said the deal would support investigational mRNA vaccines in early pipeline.
“AstraZeneca is working on next-generation technologies to develop vaccines and monoclonal antibodies for infectious diseases where there is high unmet need,” the Anglo Swedish biopharmaceutical said.
“We will share further details as proof-of-concept is achieved and the candidates progress.”
An mRNA vaccine uses a lipid nanoparticle to transport mRNA—a molecule that contains instructions—into human cells and tells the cells to generate an immune response by producing proteins.
Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine was the first in the world to be granted emergency use authorization, followed by Moderna’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.
AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine used adenovirus vector technology. It’s no longer available in the UK after some receivers developed blood clots.
So far most of the recipients of the UK’s vaccine damage compensation payment for COVID-19 vaccines were given the AstraZeneca vaccine, but mRNA vaccines are also known to cause side effects including myocarditis, and the long-term safety profiles of mRNA vaccines remain to be seen.
In China, which has relied on locally produced COVID-19 vaccines rather than allowing mRNA products from foreign manufacturers to be imported, mRNA vaccines are still not widely used.
The country granted emergency approval in March to its first homegrown mRNA vaccine against COVID-19, developed by CSPC Pharmaceutical Group. The vaccine was first used in May.
CanSino has been working on its own mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, and said in February it was in discussion with Chinese regulators around the protocol for a late-stage study for its COVID-19 mRNA booster vaccine, CS-2034.
Like all large companies in China, CanSino has its in-house communist party committee。
In a group meeting in which company staff watched Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s speech at the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, CEO Yu Xuefeng vowed to align company’s goal with the party’s goal of the “China dream” and contribute to the country’s economic development.
AstraZeneca is the largest foreign drugmaker in China and is doubling down on the world’s number two pharmaceutical market amid slumping sales of its COVID-19 vaccine.
At an event in China in May, its China president pledged to “build a local, transnational company that loves the Communist Party and loves the country.”
The cooperation deal comes only a month after China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao told foreign pharmaceuticals firms including AstraZeneca at a roundtable meeting that they can expect “more development opportunities.”
It also comes after vaccine maker Moderna, which has said that it was keen to sell its mRNA vaccine to China, announced a deal last month to develop and manufacture mRNA medicines in the country.
