Vaccine leaders discuss China vaccine opportunities at VacChina 2010

By the end of 2009, China’s vaccine industry was hitting the headlines on various fronts, with the media reporting significant activity about the nation’s vaccine enterprises, comments the Global Leaders Institute, which recently hosted the VacChina 2010 meeting in Shanghai.

For example, Sinovac Biotech successfully listed on the USA’s Nasdaq, then Simcere, a pharmaceutical company based in Jiangsu Province, did so on the New York Stock Exchange, announced the acquisition of a 50.8% stake in Ealong Biotech and took control of the latter. Also, Swiss drug major Novartis acquired an 85% equity stake in Tianyuan Bio-Pharmaceutical, a vaccine producer, for 850 million renminbi ($52.7 million; The Pharma Letter November 4, 2009). These deals indicate that the investors and foreign pharmaceutical giants have not slowed down their pace to enter China's vaccine market, even in the face of this economic recession.

VacChina 2010, a two-day executive summit last month, featured over 30 speakers and attendances from top executives including Junfang Gao, general manager of Changchun Changsheng Life Science and An Kang, chairman of the board from Hualan Bio, who shared views on the latest China vaccine industry regulatory environment, research capabilities, market trends and status of technology applications, etc.