14 | Wednesday, January 20, 2021 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY BUSINESS
RIGHT TRACK Singapore’s GLP to Vaccine rollouts to boost logistics chain build 100 China has some 15 candidates in cold storage clinical trials, with five already in facilities phase 3 process By ZHONG NAN [email protected]
By LIU ZHIHUA GLP Group, a Singaporebased [email protected] logistics and industrial infrastruc ture provider, plans to build 100 With millions getting vaccinated cold storage facilities across China in China to avoid contracting COV by the end of the 14th FiveYear Plan ID19, the country’s pharmaceuti period (202125), said one of its sen cal cold chain logistics sector is set ior executives. to get a boost, said industry ana GLP will also deploy resources to lysts and business executives. build facilities that can store Official data showed the country pharmaceutical products and sup has 15 vaccine candidates entering port the supply chains of China’s clinical trials, with five of them agricultural products in certain already in third stage clinical tests. areas. A candidate vaccine of China The dualcirculation growth par National Pharmaceutical Group adigm, consumers’ growing (Sinopharm) was conditionally demand for fresh food, beverages approved for use on Dec 31, a day and other products, digital technol after the company announced ogies and favorable regional trade results of its phase 3 study showing agreements such as the Regional the vaccine to be 79 percent effec Comprehensive Economic Partner tive in preventing COVID19. ship are all encouraging GLP Group A total of 18 enterprises are to invest more in China, said Lu expanding or setting up new pro Yanjing, vicepresident for Global duction lines for COVID19 vacci Freezer Services, a subsidiary of nes, said the Ministry of Industry GLP that operates 400 logistic and and Information Technology. The industrial parks, innovation parks, annual capacity of Sinopharm has A staff member of Sinovac Biotech manages a vaccine array in the company’s workshop. PHOTOS BY ZHANG YUWEI / XINHUA data centers and office facilities already hit 1 billion doses. Sinovac across China. Biotech Ltd’s vaccine candidate is Proposed by the central leader now conducting phase 3 human ship, the dualcirculation testing, and is expected to finish its development pattern underlines capacity expansion project soon to innovation, openingup and boost increase annual production capaci ing domestic demand among the ty to 1 billion doses. top tasks to be accomplished during The value of the domestic cold the 14th FiveYear Plan period chain logistics market — which (202125). handles both foodstuffs and phar The new paradigm sees domestic maceuticals — was about 220 bil circulation as the mainstay and lion yuan ($34 billion) in 2019, and domestic and international circula the figure is expected to surge to 1.6 tion reinforcing each other. trillion yuan after the deployment GLP Group has completed of more COVID vaccines, said building 12 cold storage facilities in Zhang Qingsong, head of the logis Chinese cities, including Beijing, tics arm of Jointown Pharmaceuti Tianjin, Shanghai, Wuhan and cal Group, China’s largest non Dalian. Their total designed opera Stateowned pharmaceutical tional space is 2 million square distribution company. meters, Lu said. “Upcoming wideranging COV All these warehouses will be ID19 vaccination drives require installed with 5G and other digital strengthened capability in vaccine An expert inspects vaccines at the workshop of the Beijing Institute Workers package vaccines produced by Sinovac Biotech at a tools and nextgeneration energy storage and distribution, and that is of Biological Products affiliated with Sinopharm. company workshop. storage equipment to control the set to accelerate the development of temperature and save on costs. the cold chain logistics industry for The COVID19 pandemic has also pharmaceuticals in China,” Zhang key groups, including those funding cold chain devices related the company has 455 warehouses BioNTech SE using a new technology highlighted the growth potential of said. engaged in handling imported to disease control and setting up with good supply practice certifi known as messenger RNA to develop the stayathome economy, as more The largescale demand for new coldchain products, Customs various preventive measures. cates, and has a total storage capaci COVID19 vaccines, said it has built people remained at home longer coronavirus vaccines will acceler workers and medical staff, accord In a recent report by Yuekai Secu ty of 105,000 cubic meters. cold storage facilities near Shanghai and enjoyed more fresh food, snacks ate the upgrade of domestic phar ing to the State Council joint pre rities, analyst Chen Mengjie said Its cold chain facilities also Pudong International Airport ahead and beverages since the outbreak of maceutical cold chain logistics vention and control mechanism vaccine rollouts will lead to a surge include more than 250 refrigerated of possible deployment of the vaccine the pandemic, she said. featuring enhancements in hard against COVID19. Health authori in the pharmaceutical cold chain vehicles, over 1,700 outsourced vehi on the Chinese mainland. The com It is also vital for GLP to continue ware, human resources, manage ties and experts estimate that if 70 sector — which is mainly composed cles and more than 5,000 cold chain pany has partnered with Sinopharm to support supply chains in China’s ment, quality control and percent of the country is successful of refrigerated production, storage incubators. Group Co Ltd for future distribution rural areas to transport more digitalization to further improve ly vaccinated, the spread of the dis and distribution — thanks to gov Due to its recently inked strategic of the vaccine, which needs to be kept agricultural products to cities the overall performance of the ease from person to person will ernment policy measures that cooperation deal on vaccine storage within cold chain distribution at directly, she said. industry — especially in areas such become unlikely. encourage related infrastructure and transportation with Sinovac temperatures of 70 C. At tempera “The booming ChinaEurope as services quality, response speed In July 2020, several Chinese gov construction. Biotech (Hong Kong) Ltd, another tures between 2 C and 8 C, it can be freight train services will also bring and industrial standardization, he ernment departments, including Increasing investment in the sec subsidiary of Sinovac Biotech Ltd, stored for up to five days. more European foodstuffs like meat, said. the Ministry of Finance and central tor will help boost the development Jointown has been upgrading cur Fosun Pharma announced last wine, fruit, seafood and dairy prod After deciding to provide home health authorities, jointly issued a of the domestic pharmaceutical cold rent facilities with high standards, month 100 million doses of its ucts into China over the next several grown vaccines free of charge to its notice requiring national reinforce chain industry, Chen said. and plans to increase its refrigerated BNT162 mRNAbased vaccine can years, creating more space for the citizenry, China has so far adminis ment of cold chain investment and Jointown Pharmaceutical has vehicles by 50 to 100 for vaccine dis didate would be provided to the Chi cold storage business,” she said. tered more than 10 million doses of infrastructure. Following the built 31 provinciallevel logistics cen tribution. nese mainland this year, subject to “As China is on course to selfdeveloped COVID19 vaccines notice, many local governments ters and 104 citylevel logistics cen Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical regulatory approval, with initial sup becoming a highincome country, during the ongoing vaccination have stepped up efforts to strength ters. With a history of 20 years in the Group Co Ltd, which is in a partner plies to be delivered from BioNTech’s its massive domestic market keeps campaign targeting a number of en cold chain capabilities, such as pharmaceutical cold chain sector, ship with German biotech company production facilities in Germany. expanding.”