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Coronavirus: as countries play blame game over Covid-19, firms work across borders to get a vaccine out
- Doctor at Chinese firm working with German company says global collaboration as much as science will lead to Covid-19 vaccine
- Fosun Pharma, involved with a candidate in phase 3 trials, is among several Chinese companies partnered with overseas vaccine makers
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When the German-made doses of an experimental Covid-19 vaccine arrived in Beijing, Dr Hui Aimin did not want to take any chances.
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He hired three drivers to pick up the vaccine cargo – packed in dry ice at minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit) – and take turns at the wheel of a special-purpose, temperature-controlled vehicle for the 1,000km drive south to Jiangsu province to begin one of China’s first clinical trials of an overseas-made Covid-19 vaccine.
“Eighteen hours after we passed customs clearance in Beijing, we gave the first subject the mRNA vaccine injection,” said Hui, senior vice-president, chief medical officer and president of global research and development at the Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co.
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“This is my first experience with such speed dosing for the first subject in a clinical trial,” said Hui, a doctor with three decades of experience in research and development in the US, China and Japan.
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